For the General Manager it provides the opportunity to improve a team heading towards a playoff spot or fill in some gaps that suddenly become urgent due to injuries. For teams that are going nowhere fast, the trade can line up future prospects or remove burdensome contracts in preparation for a better tomorrow.
We track the deals as they come to pass during this 2011-12 season, providing some background for the names that now trot off to the Post Office for change of address cards.
February 27-- Buffalo / Vancouver -- Zach Kassian and Marc Andre Gragnani head to Vancouver and a chance at the Stanley Cup, while the Sabres continue to make changes to their roster as their season of disappointment moves on, Cody Hodgson is the Canuck that is now exiled to the Sabres, going with him will be Alexander Sulzer. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Toronto / Anaheim-- A minor league deal between the Leafs and the Ducks Dale Mitchell heads to Anaheim (NHL Trade Alert to come)
February 27-- Chicago / New York Rangers -- Chicago sends defenceman John Scott to the Rangers for a 5th round pick (NHL Trade Alert to come)
February 27-- Boston / Minnesota -- The Bruins add some depth on the blue line brining in Greg Zannon from Minnesota for Steven Kampfer (NHL Trade Alert )
February 27-- Buffalo / Nashville -- Paul Gaustad will get a chance to join the quest for a Stanley Cup as he leaves the fading Sabres for the surging Preds in Nashville (NHL Trade Alert to come)
February 27-- New York Islanders / Boston -- 39 year old Brian Rolston joins the Stanley Cup champs, as the Bruins and Islanders strike a deadline buzzer deal with Mike Mottau also joining the B's in exchange for some minor league prospects. (NHL Trade Alert )
February 27-- Winnipeg / Chicago -- The Jets move defenseman Johnny Oduya on to the Blackhawks for a pair of draft picks (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Tampa Bay / Ottawa -- Matt Gilroy is on the move to Ottawa in exchange for Brian Lee (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Vancouver / Columbus -- The Canucks make a deal with Columbus, bringing in Sami Pahlsson on deadline day (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Colorado / San Jose -- The Sharks add some depth to their line up as they acquire Daniel Winnik and T. J. Gallardi from Colorado for Jamie McGinn, Mike Connolly and Michael Sgarbossa (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Tampa Bay / Toronto -- The Lightning pick up Keith Aulie from the Maple Leafs, Toronto looks to the future with Carter Ashton. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Edmonton / Minnesota -- The Wild continue to bring Minnesotans home, as they acquire Tom Gilbert in exchange for Nick Shultz who now moves to the Oilers (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Tampa Bay / Detroit -- The Red Wings move Mike Commodore to the Lightning in exchange for a seventh round pick (NHL Trade Alert)
February 27-- Nashville / Montreal -- The Canadiens ship Andrei Kostitsyn off to be reunited with his brother in Nashville, Habs gain a second round pick for 2013 and a return of a conditional 5th round pick in 2013 in return at this time. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 25-- Ottawa / St. Louis -- The Senators make a move to shore up their goaltending, or perhaps add to their trading pool for Monday, all in the wake of Craig Anderson's domestic accident of earlier this wee. Anderson the Sens starting goaltender cut his hand at home and is out of the line up for the foreseeable future, to back up Alex Auld the Sens sent a second round draft pick to St. Louis and in return they will pick up Ben Bishop currently with the Peoria Rivermen (NHL Trade Alert)
February 25-- NY Rangers / Florida-- The Florida Panthers add some strength to the forward lines as Wojtek Wolski trades in the apple for the orange state in a pre deadline move on Saturday. In return the Rangers picked up minor league defenseman Mike Vernace and a third round pick in the 2013 draft (NHL Trade Alert)
February 25-- New Jersey / Minnesota -- The Devils add to their blue line corps prior to deadline day, as they pick up Marek Zidlicky from Minnesota, in return the Wild will receive three players Kurtis Foster, Nick Palmieri and Stephane Veilleux, the Wild will also gain a couple of draft picks in the deal. In order for the move to take place the apparently highly coveted Zidlicky had to waive his no trade clause. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 23-- Los Angeles / Columbus -- The Columbus Blue Jackets began what many believe will be a trading deadline clearance sale, shipping Jeff Carter of to LA for the Kings blue line stalwart Jack Johnson and a No. 1 draft pick, the trade contingent on both players passing a physical. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 21-- Detroit / Tampa Bay/ Colorado-- A three team deal took centre stage on Tuesday as the Detroit Red Wings picked up defenceman Kyle Quincey from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had held Quincey after a trade earlier in the day with Colorado which saw Steve Downie go to the Avalanche, when all the trading was done, the Lightning were holding a 2012 draft pick and putting minor league defence man Sebastian Piche into their system. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 18-- Tampa Bay / Philadelphia-- Defenseman Pavel Kubina adds to his travel itinerary with a move to Philadelphia, in exchange the Flyers send minor league forward Jon Kalinski and two draft picks. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 17-- Montreal / Nashville-- Hal Gill is about to change his tastes in music, trading in the electronic pulses of the Montreal scene for those country tunes of Nashville. The Habs sent Gill and a 2013 5th round draft pick to the Predators on Friday, receiving Blake Geoffrion (lineage of Boom Boom), Robert Slaney and 2012 second round pick in return. (NHL Trade Alert)
February 16-- San Jose / Tampa Bay -- Dominic Moore is on the move again, this time leaving Tampa Bay for San Jose, in exchange the Lightning will receive a second round pick in 2012 NHL Draft, Tampa also will send a seventh round pick to the Sharks (NHL Trade Alert)
February 16-- Dallas / Philadelphia -- The Dallas Stars send defence man Nicklas Grossman to Philadelphia in exchange for a second round draft pick in 2012 and third round draft pick in 2013. (NHL Trade Alert)
January 27-- Calgary / Chicago-- The Chicago Blackhawks picked up some experience for the middle on Friday, as the Hawks acquired Brendan Morrison from the Calgary Flames. Calgary received minor league defence man Brian Connelly in return. (NHL Trade Alert)
January 26-- San Jose / Florida -- San Jose has picked up Tim Kennedy from the Florida Panthers, in exchange the Sharks send defence man Sam Sullivan off to the Panthers (NHL Trade Alert)
January 20- New Jersey / Carolina -- Alexei Ponikarovsky is trading in his Devils uniform for that of the Carolina Hurricanes, as the left winger joins the Canes in exchange for a minor league defence man Joseph Sova and fourth round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. (NHL Trade Alert)
January 12-- Montreal / Calgary -- Yet more drama from Montreal, as Pierre Gauthier continues to spin heads, this time with a mid-game trade of Mike Cammelleri to Calgary in exchange for Rene Borque and a few other bits and pieces. As we examine on the blog, it's just the latest development out of Quebec that has the hockey world talking, though not necessarily in the most positive of discussions (NHL Trade Alert)
January 3-- Toronto / Anaheim -- Brian Burke checked in with his old employers to ring in the new year, engineering a minor trade that sees Luca Caputi moving to the land of Disney in exchange for Nicola Deschamps, for some this is perhaps the first negotiation between the two teams that may see another prominent Duck perhaps become a Leaf (NHL Trade Alert)
December 18-- Ottawa / Phoenix -- The Ottawa Senators have over the years had one or two players that didn't want to play in Ottawa (hey Dany how's it going!), so when a player expressed excitement at the prospect of arriving in the Canadian capital we imagine that the Sens didn't waste any time in finishing up the details. With that as the preamble, Sens fans can prepare to welcome Kyle Turris the recalcitrant Coyote who was signed earlier this month after a long hold out and now finds himself donning the red, white and black of the Senators. Heading to Phoenix, defence man David Rundblad and a second round pick in the 2012 draft. (NHL Trade Alert)
December 9-- Montreal / Carolina -- Montreal made a move to shore up its anemic power play on Friday, acquiring Tomas Kaberle from Carolina for Jaroslav Spacek, a move that sends the two Czechs off to new starts in new locales. The stop in Montreal for Kaberle brings his career to the third of the original six franchises. (NHL Trade Alert)
November 11-- St. Louis/Columbus -- There was some surprise when Ken Hitchcock joined the Blues last week, especially considering many folks suspected he was destined to return to Columbus to coach. So it's even more surprising the two teams have cooked up a hockey deal in such short time. The Blues added some strength on the back end with the acquisition of Kris Russell from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Columbus received Nikita Niktin in return. (NHL Trade Alert)
November 8-- Columbus/Pittsburgh-- Columbus shores up their offensive lines by acquiring Mark Letestu from the Pittsburgh Penguins, in return the Blue Jackets send their fourth round pick in the 2012 draft (NHL Trade Alert)
November 8-- Wahington/New York Rangers-- Tomas Kundratek is on the move heading to Washington to join the Capitals, the Rangers bring in Francois Bouchard in the deal. Both players have been playing in the minor leagues in this 2011 season. (NHL Trade Alert)
October 28-- Nashville/Phoenix -- The Coyotes were back on the phones at weeks' end, as they picked up centre Cal O'Reilly from the Nasvhville Predators, offering up a fourth round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. The trade won't become official however, until O'Reilly passes a physical (NHL Trade Alert)
October 23-- Montreal/Phoenix-- The Coyotes and Canadiens strike a deal that sees Petteri Nokelainen head to Montreal along with minor league player Garret Stafford, in exchange the Coyotes will receive minor league player Brock Trotter and Montreal's 7th round pick in the 2012 Entry Draft. (NHL Trade Alert)
October 23-- Vancouver/Florida-- Vancouver sends Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm off to some Florida sunshine in exchange for David Booth, Steve Reinprecht and a third round pick in the 2013 Entry Draft (NHL Trade Alert)
October 12-- Los Angeles/Philadelphia-- The ever popular future considerations gets another workout as the Los Angeles Kings picked up Stefan Legein and a sixth round draft choice in 2012 in exchange for future considerations destined the Flyers way. (NHL Trade Alert)
October 12-- Dallas/Minnesota-- The Stars add a bit of size and consistency to their lineup on Wednesday with a trade with the Wild that will see Eric Nystrom join the Stars line up. In exchange the Wild will receive future considerations from the Stars. (NHL Trade Alert)
October 8-- Anaheim/Colorado-- Looking for some help on their blue line, the Anaheim Ducks made the call to Colorado swapping the Ducks Jake Newton and a seventh round draft pick in 2013 for the Avs Kyle Cumiskey. Should Cumiskey play more than 45 games for the Ducks this season, the Avs will be upgraded in the draft pick department, gaining Anaheim's fifth round pick in the 2012 draft (NHL Trade Alert)
October 4-- Toronto/New Jersey-- Toronto GM Brian Burke kicks off the trading season with a deal with the Devils, acquiring centre David Steckel from the Devils in exchange for a fourth round pick at the 2012 Entry draft (NHL Trade Alert)
Trade Summary
February -- 12
January -- 5
December --2
November -- 3
October -- 7
Most Active Traders
Anaheim-- 2
Boston-- 2
Buffalo -- 2
Calgary-- 2
Carolina-- 2
Chicago-- 3
Colorado-- 3
Columbus-- 4
Dallas-- 2
Detroit-- 2
Edmonton -- 1
Florida-- 3
Los Angeles-- 2
Minnesota-- 4
Montreal-- 4
Nashville -- 4
New Jersey -- 3
New York Islanders-- 1
New York Rangers-- 3
Ottawa-- 3
Philadelphia -- 3
Phoenix-- 3
Pittsburgh-- 1
San Jose-- 3
St. Louis-- 2
Tampa Bay -- 6
Toronto -- 3
Vancouver-- 3
Washington -- 1
Winnipeg -- 1
