NHL Trades Tonight: Revisiting all player transactions made night before holiday roster freeze | December 18, 2024

By ARJUN B

Modified Dec 19, 2024 07:30 GMT

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The NHL holiday roster freeze is almost here, which means teams only have a short window left to make trades before the deadline on Thursday.

With the freeze going into effect at midnight on Dec. 19, several NHL teams have made some last-minute deals on Wednesday before rosters are locked in place.

The biggest trade of the night came between the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens. The Predators acquired young defenseman Justin Barron from Montreal in exchange for veteran blue liner Alexandre Carrier. Both teams shuffled their players to bring some change to their respective struggling seasons.

Another notable trade went down between the Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues. The Penguins added defensive depth by acquiring Pierre-Olivier Joseph from the Blues in return for future considerations. Joseph returns back to the Penguins after playing 23 games with the Blues this season.

Finally, the New York Rangers and Seattle Kraken hooked up on a trade sending forward Kaapo Kakko to Seattle. The former No. 2 overall NHL pick will get a fresh start with the Kraken, while the Rangers picked up defenseman William Borgen plus a third and sixth-round pick in 2025.

Rosters will be frozen from Dec. 20 through the 27, preventing any further transactions. It will be interesting to see if any pent-up trade activity occurs before the freeze.

Potential NHL trades before 2024 holiday roster freeze

According to hockey analyst Rick Dhaliwal, the Vancouver Canucks have significant interest in two defensemen to get before the roster freeze – Bowen Byram of the Buffalo Sabres and Ivan Provorov of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Both Byram and Provorov are talented left-shot blue liners who were top-10 draft picks after stellar junior careers in the WHL.

"I said Monday the Canucks have been very agressive on the market, they're. They are looking for top four defencemen and a winger.... We know the Cancuks like Bowen Byram, but they also like Ivan Provorov of Columbus," NHL insider Rick Dhaliwal said on the 'Donnie & Dhali' podcast.

The interest in Provorov and Byram stems from this desire to upgrade their defense core.

While Vancouver has assembled a skilled group of forwards, Dhaliwal hinted that their search for another winger could be related to uncertainty around Brock Boeser's future, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season's end.

Which team do you think made the best trade so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.