Just over two weeks from now, NHL rosters are going to be set as the league shuts down for the Olympic break. On February 4th rosters will be frozen until the 22nd as the hockey world focuses on the action in Italy. Considering the fact that the actual trade deadline comes just 12 days after rosters open back up, some GMs are getting the jump on things now. Two rather significant deals have come together over the last couple of days.

The first deal sent the most coveted defenseman on the market from Calgary to Las Vegas as the Golden Knights parted ways with Zach Whitecloud, a 2027 first-round pick, a conditional 2027 second-round pick, and college prospect Abram Weibe. In exchange they got Rasmus Andersson with Calgary retaining 50% of the 29-year-old’s cap hit.

The Golden Knights, never ones to sit idly by during a trade season, fill the hole they’ve had since the beginning of the season when Alex Pietrangelo went on season-ending injured reserve. They are also currently playing without the services of Brayden McNabb, who is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

In return Calgary receives a 2027 first-round pick (top-10 protected), a 2027 second-round pick that could become a first-rounder if the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup along with Weibe, a former seventh-round pick currently patrolling the blue line at the University of North Dakota. Along with the picks, they get Whitecloud, a 29-year-old defenseman who is signed through the 2027-28 season.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Calgary make a few more deals as they try and re-tool their team around younger players such as Connor Zary, Morgan Frost, Dustin Wolf, and Zayne Parekh. Considering Andersson was set to test free agency this summer, and still might since there was no extension to his current deal, the Flames did a decent job of pulling some assets that they can either keep or use to improve their roster through other deals.

While Calgary is in the re-tooling phase, it looks like the San Jose Sharks are looking to emerge from their rebuild a little early. They sent a 2026 and a 2027 second-round pick, along with Cole Clayton, to Vancouver for Kiefer Sherwood, this year’s out-of-nowhere forward that is riding a career-high shooting percentage.

The Sharks get a tough, hard-working forward that should continue to thrive on the power play with Macklin Celebrini feeding him pucks. San Jose currently sits in the middle of the league with a 20.4% success rate, but could use another option to help Celebrini. The young forward currently has 72 points on the season, but the next best forward, Tyler Toffoli, has 32. Sherwood’s 17 goals already puts him second the team, while his 6 power-play goals is more than Toffoli (5) and Alex Wennberg (5).

Were either players on the Lightning’s radar? It’s always hard to say with Julien BriseBois, but neither really seem to fit a pressing need for the Lightning. Tampa Bay’s right side of the line-up is fairly healthy right now, and could get stronger if J.J. Moser flips back to that side once Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh are healthy.

As for adding a forward, it’s likely that they’re looking more towards the center of the ice. A forward that can win face-offs and kill penalties is likely to be a little higher on their needs list. That being said, if San Jose falters, and looks to flip Sherwood before the March 6th deadline, the Lightning might come calling if they feel the need to add a little toughness to their bottom-six.

A stumbling block that Mr. BriseBois acknowledged during his mid-season fireside chat is that the Lightning might not have the cap space to be very active during the trade frenzy. Due to the injuries and call-ups, they have had to use long-term injury relief which prevents them from accruing cap space,

“So even if we’re perfectly healthy, and we assign guys back down to the minors, we only have two weeks to accrue cap space. That’s not enough to do anything.”

Julien BriseBois saying he’s not going to do anything at the trade line is a yearly tradition. So is the out-of-the-blue deal that he eventually pulls off minutes before the deadline. He does have to walk the fine line of improving the team for a Stanley Cup run and not upsetting the chemistry on a team that is atop the Eastern Conference.

While the Lightning might not be involved in any deals over the next couple of weeks, expect a few more teams to consummate a trade of two.