When NHL players went away for the Olympics and the season stopped, Phoenix Coyotes general manager Don Maloney felt the league came to a complete halt."You'd think at this break there'd be a lot of dialogue – there really wasn't,'' he said. "I think everybody just said, well until the players get back and at least start practising, everybody left their foot off the gas and said, 'OK, let's get back at it.'''Once those GMs got back at it, they were faced with the uncertainty of the stretch run and the reality that all but a handful of teams are in the mix for a playoff spot. The unknowns are plentiful and the surprises already underway as the clock ticks down to Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET."The most unpredictable time in the NHL is 24 hours around July 1 and 24 hours around the trade deadline,'' Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford said.That became clear Tuesday when the Vancouver Canucks traded goaltender Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers and a flurry of other moves were made.The Philadelphia Flyers got defenceman Andrew MacDonald from the New York Islanders; the Anaheim Ducks made three moves, trading goalie Viktor Fasth to the Edmonton Oilers for two picks and winger Dustin Penner to the Washington Capitals for a fourth-round pick that they flipped to the Dallas Stars for injured defenceman Stephane Robidas.The Montreal Canadiens also got defenceman Mike Weaver from Florida in exchange for a fifth-round pick. And the Oilers traded Ilya Bryzgalov to the Minnesota Wild for a fourth-rounder.Even if the Chicago Blackhawks stand pat and the Central Division rival St. Louis Blues hold tight after getting goaltender Ryan Miller and forward Steve Ott from Buffalo, several teams may contact the Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, New York Islanders and Panthers looking to try to get Jaroslav Halak, Matt Moulson, Ales Hemsky, Mike Cammalleri or Thomas Vanek.Those are the only teams that could be considered true sellers. The buyers they need are everywhere around them."There's 25 of us looking at the other five teams saying, 'How can we help ourselves?''' Maloney said in a phone interview. "There's a lot of teams calling those teams. And then it's one thing to say, 'I'd like to get one of these higher-end players,' but you have to have the cash and the cap space to do it, which creates another whole challenge."If you ask me, 'Do I think there's going to be a ton of deals on Wednesday?' I don't know. I really don't.''Unpredictability and volatility are two of the key words to consider after such an eventful day on the trade market. No one really knows what to expect."It's hard to say,'' Rutherford said in a phone interview Monday. "There may be a bunch of deals made for lesser players, for like role players or fourth-line players or depth defencemen or things like that. A bunch of those could be made, which would mean there'll still be a lot of deals.''Thirty trades were consummated in the days leading up to last year's deadline, including 17 on April 3 itself, and just 24 of those included at least one everyday NHL player. Gambling website Bodog.ca set the over/under for 2014 deadline-day deals at 16.5.If that includes a handful more major deals like those that happened Tuesday, it would counter a recent trend of the salary cap stifling movement. GMs like to point to the cap as one reason why it's just more difficult to make moves this time of year.From that perspective, this season makes that task even tougher. Teams can only spend up to US$64.3 million this season, down from $70.2 million a year ago after the conclusion of the lockout.While that seemed to put a tighter squeeze on over the summer during free agency, the lasting effect is there and it could potentially slow things at the deadline."It's a little bit tighter this season,'' Stars general manager Jim Nill said in a phone interview. "A lot of teams really had to adjust their rosters to get down to this year's cap. And that hasn't changed. A lot of teams are up against the cap, a lot of teams because of long-term injury are up against the cap. It's much tighter this season than in past seasons.''According to the CapGeek salary cap website, eight teams have no actual cap space and can only add players using long-term injured reserve allowance space. The Toronto Maple Leafs are close to that and are expected to have about $1 million available once they activate Dave Bolland off LTIR.Entering Tuesday's games, Dallas occupied the final wild-card spot in the West. Nill is "banking'' on his team making the playoffs, but it's not in his plans to roll the dice on something significant just to improve those chances."We're not going to risk making a move that's going to set us back a couple years just to try to improve this year to get us over that hump,'' Nill said. "We're not going to jump into something where it's just a short-term gain that's going to cost us some prospects or picks."We're not in that mode right now. And I really don't think there's a lot of teams in that mode to tell you the truth because it's so close, it's so competitive.''(© Canadian Press/Stephen Whyno)
