The annual Holiday Roster Freeze is now in effect although there are several exceptions that allow for roster movement to occur over the next several days leading up to the three-day shutdown beginning on Tuesday. While there won’t be any trades or regular waiver activity during that time, here are the allowable transactions that can occur during the freeze.
Recalls
While there is a limitation on players being sent to the minors during this time, players can still be recalled at any point (either as a regular or an emergency recall) so if someone gets hurt over the next couple of days, a replacement can be brought up as long as the team has the cap space to add him to the roster.
Demotions For Players On Emergency Recalls
Anyone classified as an emergency recall before December 19th can be sent back to the minors at any point during the freeze as long as they don’t have to pass through waivers to return. The threshold for a normally waiver-eligible player to require waivers to be sent back down after being brought up on an emergency recall is ten games played. If they do need waivers, it will have to come after the freeze is lifted.
Demotions For Players On Regular Recalls
Anyone brought up on a regular recall as of December 11th can be sent down through December 23rd at 11:59 PM local time. There will likely be an influx of demotions on Sunday and Monday once teams have played their final game before the Holiday Break to get those players off the cap for a few days. With so many teams having tight cap situations, the opportunity to bank a few dollars in cap savings will be quite important. The exception to this rule is any player that becomes waiver-eligible between the 11th and the 23rd by playing their tenth game or spending their thirtieth day on an NHL roster since last clearing waivers. Those will have to wait until after the freeze before hitting the wire.
Activating Someone Off Of LTIR
Section 16.5(d)(i) of the CBA grants teams the ability to make any transactions necessary in order to get back into salary cap compliance after activating a player off long-term injured reserve. Teams using that provision are allowed to exceed the cap during that time but must get back under it before they can bring the injured player back onto the active roster.
Signing Players To NHL Contracts
While uncommon at this time of the season, teams can sign players to an NHL contract as long as they have an open spot on their active roster. It’s something to keep in mind when it comes to Ilya Kovalchuk who remains unsigned; he could conceivably sign during the freeze although teams may want to wait in order to save a little bit of cap room.
With all of this in mind, there will still likely be a fair amount of transactions over the next couple of days before the league shuts down for three days beginning on the 24th. Teams will be permitted to resume making trades, regular demotions or placing players on waivers on December 28th at 12:01 AM local time.