The NHL’s Olympic roster freeze is over and the final push towards the trade deadline is under way. TSN.ca keeps you up to date with all the latest news and rumours with the daily Countdown to TradeCentre blog.

Follow all the latest trades here and the most up to date signings here.

The market is open again

The NHL’s Olympic roster freeze was lifted as the calendar turned to Feb. 23 and teams are once again free to make deals after a nearly three-week halt to the action.

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger said Monday on First Up on TSN 1050 Toronto that he is expecting deals to come together this week after negotiations continued during the Olympic break.

Dreger cautioned, however, that some sellers could try to hold on to assets in hopes the price will rise in the lead up to the March 6 deadline. He pointed to the Calgary Flames potentially holding on to Nazem Kadri until after suitors for a veteran centre miss out on an option such as New York Rangers centre Vincent Trocheck in hopes the price will be higher.

Dreger said the Flames have already received strong offers for Kardi, who has 10 goals and 39 points in 56 games this season.

The 35-year-old centre is on the fourth season of a seven-year, $49 million contract that carries an annual cap hit of $7 million.

Trocheck, 32, has 12 goals and 36 points in 43 games with the Rangers this season. He is coming off winning a gold medal with Team USA at Milano Cortina 2026.

The 5-foot-11 centre is on the fourth season of a seven-year, $39.375 million contract that carries an annual cap hit of $5.625 million.

Star winger Artemi Panarin was dealt just minutes before the freeze took effect earlier this month, with the Rangers finally moving the forward to the Los Angeles Kings after holding him out of their lineup for more than a week in anticipation of a deal.

The Kings sent forward Liam Greentree and a conditional 2026 third-round pick to the Rangers in the deal, inking Panarin to a two-year, $22 million contract extension in the process.

“Obviously, we made the deal today to make our team better,” Kings general manager Ken Holland said after the trade. ”We signed him to a two-year extension. We weren’t going to do it as a rental. He didn’t want to go anywhere as a rental.

“He wanted to find a home, so we’re thrilled that he wanted to waive the no-trade [clause] to come to LA. We’re happy that we were able to get him to a two-year extension, and after two years, I’m hoping that we’re working on another extension, but [I’ll] worry about that down the road. I think it was just a matter of these types of players with this resume are very, very difficult to find, and we had an opportunity to add one today.”

The addition of Panarin has become all the more important for the Kings in their playoff push after losing winger Kevin Fiala for the remainder of the regular season due to a broken leg sustained while playing for Switzerland at the Winter Olympics.

Fiala has 18 goals and 40 points in 55 games with the Kings this season.

Panarin, who is expected to make his Kings debut when the team hosts the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, has 19 goals and 57 points in 52 games this season. He last played on Jan. 26 before being pulled from the Rangers lineup.

Los Angeles sits outside the playoff picture with 26 games remaining in their seasons, currently three points back of the Anaheim Ducks for the final wild-card spot and also just three points back of the Seattle Kraken for third in the Pacific Division and four points back of the Edmonton Oilers for second in the crowded playoff race.

Blue Jackets not looking at pending UFAs

The Columbus Blue Jackets were looking like clear sellers in January before Rick Bowness replaced Dean Evason behind the bench led the team on a tear before the Olympic break.

The Blue Jackets have won 10 of 11 games since Bowness was hired, moving to within four points of the Boston Bruins for the final wild-card spot with a game in hand as play gets set to resume.

General manager Don Waddell spoke to Jeff Svoboda of the Blue Jackets team website during the Olympic break to discuss his team’s deadline update amid their sudden charge.

“Well, three weeks ago before I hired [Bowness], I thought the way we were headed, we would be getting lots of assets [at the deadline],” Waddell said. “But at this point, we battled ourselves [back]. We have five games, some big games before the [deadline] here, we’ll continue to monitor those and hopefully come out of this break on a good note and keep it going. Obviously, we’re not going to go 11-1, but we want to keep ourselves in the race here.

“Does it make it harder? It makes it a lot more fun, that’s for sure. It does make it harder. The stress level is probably a little higher than normal. I wear an Oura ring for a reason, to tell me my stress levels for the day. But I’d rather be in this position than the way we were going because at least now we have some good decisions to make. As we get through the next few weeks here, the dust will settle and we’ll see where we’re at and how we move forward.”

Waddell was not fully tipping his hand on plans for the deadline, but he did reveal that the Blue Jackets are not planning to pursue rental players to boost their playoff push this year.

“Yeah, we’re planning for everything. We’re talking to some of the UFAs right now about the future and all that. Those will continue, too, just to get a feel. But if we’re in the playoff mix, I don’t know if that changes our thinking or my thinking,” Waddell explained. “Because you look at it, the one thing we probably won’t do is go out and try to add UFAs at the deadline. You might go around the edges a little bit, but having in particular three forwards that play good roles on our team, to add another [UFA] and give up assets probably doesn’t make sense.

“If we could trade for somebody that has term that we like going forward, that’s a different value that we look at. We’ll see. All the UFAs right now on our team play a good role for our team, so if you take anybody off, you’re going to have to replace them because of the positions that they play.”

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun noted ahead of the roster freeze that the Blue Jackets are a key team to watch ahead of the deadline, with several pending UFAs of their own who would draw interest on the trade market. Veterans Boone Jenner, Charlie Coyle, Mason Marchment and Erik Gudbranson are all playing on expiring deals and could net the team significant returns if they elect to sell.

The Blue Jackets will return from the break on Thursday with a massive matchup against the Bruins.