Today is the NHL’s trade deadline day, and the Dallas Stars may or may not be players.
It’s kind of hard to peg which direction they’re headed. They’ve got 16 games left in the season, and are six points behind the Nashville Predators with three games in hand. They’ll also need to leap over the Chicago Blackhawks (two points behind, two games in hand for Dallas) and make sure the Columbus Blue Jackets don’t go on some heater (three points ahead, three games in hand for Dallas).
Getting just one point in a shootout loss to the Predators last night didn’t do much to clarify their position. The other unknown for the Stars, of course, is the potential return of their walking wounded: Alexander Radulov, Tyler Seguin, Ben Bishop, Joel Kiviranta, and Andrej Sekera (injured last night) are all out of the lineup. (Not to mention the perpetual “game-time decision” status of Roope Hintz.) If they can get any or most of these guys back in the next week to be able to help with the last dozen or so games, they’d actually work just like a trade deadline pickup.
That could be the very reason the Stars don’t make a move today. The trade deadline is officially at 3 PM EDT, which is when the trade is required to be filed with the league. It’s important to note, though, that the trade calls can happen after that time so some moves can still come out after 2 PM local time here.
You can watch the TSN Tradecentre streamed on ESPN+ in the U.S. this year. So far, there has yet to be a trade made since they hit the airwaves this morning. There’s still time, though. You can also check out the NHL Network’s coverage, which is on currently and will feature the simulcast of Sportsnet’s Hockey Central beginning at 11 PM local time.
One player that has hit the early rumors this morning is Stars defensman Jamie Oleksiak. A scan of Twitter indicates that he has been traded to the Edmonton Oilers while simultaneously being a coveted target of the Toronto Maple Leafs. A former player reported the move as an all-but-done to Edmonton earlier, but nothing has been confirmed by any major media outlets at this point:
Hearing Jamie Oleksiak to the Edmonton Oilers @MissinCurfew
— Jimmy Hayes (@Jimmy10Hayes) April 12, 2021