Monday, April 12, at 3 p.m. ET is the cutoff for teams to decide whether they’re playoff contenders or playoff pretenders — although, with the way things are set up this year, that may not actually be known until the last day of the season. With border and quarantine constraints, abnormal division alignments and the Kraken expansion cloud hanging over the league, will teams even be looking to wheel and deal?
2021 NHL TRADE DEADLINE: Date, time, salary cap and quarantine implications
Some general managers, such as the Maple Leafs’ Kyle Dubas, have expressed their desire to make moves, but they want them to happen sooner rather than later.
“I think given the quarantine that’s in place right now and the 14 days where the player’s going to come in and sit for 14 days in their hotel and then join the club, we’re going to be in a tougher spot to certainly get as much out of it as we can,” Dubas told reporters earlier this month. “And if you look at the schedule where it goes, where April 12 is the deadline and then if you go the two weeks beyond that you’re April 27 or 28 before they get out of their hotel, and then they’re only with the team for I think it’s like six games or 10 days or something like that [before playoffs].
“So it certainly provides an incentive to try to make the moves earlier. It takes two to make that happen, though.”
How much will get done is anyone’s guess. But when trades do happen, Sporting News will have them covered.
Here’s a list of every trade completed before the 2021 NHL trade deadline.
NHL trade deadline tracker 2021
Sharks: 2022 fifth-round pick, retains 25 percent of Janmark’s salary
