Sabres Acquire Tanner Pearson
The Buffalo Sabres have made one more move to shore up their depth before the Trade Deadline hit. They dealt a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for winger Tanner Pearson per TSN’s Darren Dreger.
Buffalo has confirmed the deal.
Pearson heads back to the Eastern Conference for the first time in three years, after spending last season with the Vegas Golden Knights and this season in Winnipeg. He has grown into a journeyman, extra forward in the latter part of his career, now headed for his fourth club in the last three seasons after a five-year stay with the Vancouver Canucks. Pearson will be playing with the seventh club of his 13-year NHL career when he joins the Sabres.
The 33-year-old winger has scored seven goals and 13 points in 52 games with Winnipeg this season. He has buoyed the quiet scoring with a plus-seven – highest on the Jets offense – and 68 hits – fourth-most among Winnipeg forwards. Two-way responsibility has underlined Pearson’s game in recent years, marked by 53 points, a minus-one, and 214 hits over his last 184 games.
Pearson was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings with the 30th-overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. He debuted with the club one season later, netting seven points in 25 games of his rookie year. Pearson grew those numbers to back-to-back, 40-point seasons in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaign. He reached that feat once more in 2019-20, his first year in Vancouver, but has otherwise failed to crack into his team’s top-nine. He will be a responsible, depth forward to help Buffalo keep afloat as they approach their first postseason in over a decade.
Avalanche Acquire Nazem Kadri
An hour after the deadline, one of the top names finally comes off the board. The Flames have agreed to send Nazem Kadri and their 2027 fourth-round pick back to Colorado for a reunion with the Avalanche, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2022, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The Avs’ 2028 first-round pick, a 2027 second-round pick, winger Victor Olofsson, and the signing rights to forward prospect Max Curran are going to Calgary. Both draft picks have conditions attached. Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet adds that the Flames are retaining 20% of his salary to bring his cap hit down from $7MM to $5.6MM for the Avs. The trade is now official.
The idea of the Avalanche bringing Kadri back into the fold first surfaced last week in a report from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Kadri, armed with a 13-team no-trade list, told TSN today that Colorado was “the team at the very top of my list” and was “for the most part” only interested in returning to Denver if he didn’t stay with the Flames (via Aarif Deen of Colorado Hockey Now).
Momentum toward a deal seemed to cease when Colorado traded a first-round and a fifth-round pick to the Maple Leafs yesterday for Nicolas Roy. Not only did Roy swallow up $3MM in cap space, but they traded away their top 2027 draft pick that most assumed would have to be included in any potential deal for Kadri. They’d traded away their 2026 selection at last year’s deadline for Brock Nelson. They now have no first-round choice until 2029 and haven’t drafted in the first round since taking Calum Ritchie (also traded for Nelson) 27th overall and Mikhail Gulyayev 31st overall in 2023.
The Avalanche never wanted to lose Kadri after his career year in 2021-22 fueled them to a Stanley Cup. The post-COVID flat cap environment simply made matching Kadri’s open market value impossible, though, and at age 31, he was never going to have a better opportunity to cash in on a long-term deal. Colorado had fits trying to replace him as their #2 center behind Nathan MacKinnon, rotating through lower-cost or younger names like Alex Newhook, Ryan Johansen, and Casey Mittelstadt until finally addressing the hole in a meaningful way by splurging for Brock Nelson from the Islanders at last year’s deadline.
Nelson has flourished this season, racking up 30 goals and 52 points in 60 games while playing over 19 minutes per night. Nelson could shift to the wing to make room for Kadri down the middle in the top six – he did spend some time on John Tavares‘ flank early in his career in New York. In any event, the Avs have an excess of options down the middle with Roy, Ross Colton, Jack Drury, and Parker Kelly all able to comfortably hold things down on the third or fourth lines. If Colorado really wants to spread the wealth, it could slot in Kadri on the third line down the middle behind Nelson and look to get him extra ice time on the top power play unit to maximize his value.
Kadri, 35, owns a 12-29–41 scoring line in 61 games this year for the Flames that’s relatively uninspiring given his recent track record. He didn’t make an overwhelming first impression in Calgary with 56 points in 2022-23, but he followed that up with a 75-point year in 2023-24 and then a career-high 35 goals last season.
Kadri’s age and term remaining will be something of a concern, seeing as he’s now on the Avs’ books through 2028-29. It’s important to consider that Kadri didn’t miss a single game due to injury over his three-plus years in Calgary and last landed out of the lineup when he fractured his right thumb in the 2022 Final with the Avs. Even then, he hasn’t missed double-digit games in a season due to injury since before the pandemic.
Whatever concerns the Avs may have about Kadri’s production this year certainly weren’t enough to stop them from reacquiring him, plus an ugly 6.9% shooting clip should turn around in short order and help him get hot for Colorado down the stretch. A two-time All-Star, he’s played the least for the Avs out of his three NHL stops but reached the playoffs each time.
In contrast, no team has more premier draft picks in the next few years than the Flames. They already had an impressive stable before the deal, but now own a pair of first-round picks each in 2026, 2027, and 2028 and have eight second-rounders over the next three years as well.
They’ll take a bit of money back in the deal in the form of Olofsson, a pending UFA at a cap hit of $1.575MM. A strong finish to the year could result in an extension if he’s open to staying in Calgary; they’ll need to retain a few veteran bodies to fill out their forward group next season. He ended up being a shrewd depth pickup for the Avs last summer, scoring 11 goals and 25 points in 60 games, but became a redundant luxury they couldn’t afford after adding Kadri and Roy into the mix.
Curran won’t make a huge splash in Calgary’s already excessive prospect pool but is a nice get nonetheless. The 6’3″ center is still 19 years old and was a fifth-round pick by Colorado in 2024. Ranked as their #7 prospect entering the season by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff, he’s produced over a point per game over his last two seasons in the WHL and has committed to UMass for the fall before potentially turning pro in 2027-28.
Flames general manager Craig Conroy told reporters that the condition on the 2028 first is tied to the condition attached to the 2027 first they sent to Toronto in the Roy deal. That pick was top-10 protected, so in the unlikely event it falls in that range and defers to 2028, the Flames would then receive Colorado’s 2029 first unprotected. The 2027 pick they receive is the better of the Avs’ or Wild’s second-rounder (via Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960).
Image courtesy of Geoff Burke-Imagn Images.
Capitals Acquire Timothy Liljegren
2:52 p.m.: Washington has announced the deal and sent the Golden Knights’ 2026 fourth-round pick the other way to complete it.
1:06 p.m.: The Capitals are acquiring defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the Sharks, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. We’re still waiting on the return.
While San Jose is in a playoff race of their own, they have a bevy of pending unrestricted free agent blue-liners. Liljegren is one of them, and they were widely expected to ship multiple names from that group out today to continue recouping at least mid-level assets as they slowly emerge from the ashes of their rebuild.
Acquired from the Maple Leafs early last season, the Sharks have given Liljegren the longest leash of his career. A first-round pick by Toronto in 2017, he was never able to break into a top-four role there but is now averaging over 20 minutes per game in San Jose. Given how much he’s produced at lower levels, the Sharks were likely hoping for a bit more production than the seven goals and 28 points he provided in 110 games since October 2024.
Liljegren didn’t get much power-play time, though, especially this season, with Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg taking up those quarterback slots. With Klingberg being a potential extension candidate given his play and youngsters Shakir Mukhamadullin and Sam Dickinson pushing for more ice time moving forward, the 26-year-old Liljegren didn’t look like a long-term fit.
The move is a sign the Caps aren’t entirely punting on this season, even after trading away franchise defender John Carlson and center Nic Dowd for futures in the last couple of days. Washington’s playoff odds have slipped to a small but still tangible 21.3%, per MoneyPuck. They only find themselves four points out of a spot.
Liljegren could stick around past this season if there’s mutual interest in an extension. Matt Roy is now the only everyday NHL right-shot they have signed for next year, so assuming they shift one of their lefties over to their offside to make room for top prospect Cole Hutson to join the team from college in the coming days, as expected, there’s a hole that Liljegren fills in the Caps’ bottom four.
Image courtesy of Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images.
Red Wings Acquire Justin Faulk From Blues
According to TSN’s Bruce Garrioch, the Detroit Red Wings are considered the frontrunners for defenseman Justin Faulk if the Blues end up moving him before the deadline. According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, there is confidence that the two teams were able to place a trade call before the deadline.
TSN’s Darren Dreger shares that a first- and third-round pick are headed to St. Louis. Additionally, Dreger added that Justin Holl is also going to the Blues. Both teams have confirmed the trade, with the Red Wings announcing that prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov is also included in the trade. The first-round pick will be Detroit’s first this season and carries no protection per Max Bultman of The Athletic, whereas the third-round selection will be the one they acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier today for Elmer Söderblom.
Detroit was known to be looking for a right-handed top-four defenseman, and there were few options better than Faulk available. Despite being a competitive team this season, the Red Wings had little else on the blue line behind Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider.
Not only will Faulk help stabilize Detroit’s defensive corps this season, but he’ll be around next year, too. Thanks to his seven-year, $45.5MM contract extension with the Blues, Faulk is signed through next season at a relatively affordable $6.5MM cap hit. Additionally, he’ll only be owed $4.5MM in actual salary. He does have a 15-team no-trade clause in his contract, but there’s no word if he had to waive it to move to HockeyTown.
At this stage of his career, Faulk has become a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. He topped out with a 50-point performance with the Blues in the 2022-23 season, but hasn’t gotten close to those totals since.
Still, he has remained a complete player. Over the last three years, Faulk has averaged six goals and 31 points in 66 games, with over 22 minutes of ice time per game. Furthermore, he consistently blocks over 100 shots a season, which will benefit the trio of Edvinsson, Seider, and Ben Chiarot, each of whom has blocked over 100 shots this season.
Unfortunately, although he can offer help on the Red Wings’ power play and penalty kill, Faulk won’t do much to diminish Detroit’s goal-scoring woes at even strength. Of his 94 points throughout the last three seasons, 28 of those have come with a man advantage.
Meanwhile, the Blues will come out of today’s deadline with a pair of first-round picks in exchange for a few aging veterans. They were already known to be one of the few sellers entering deadline season, and have set themselves up nicely for Alexander Steen to take over as the next General Manager.
Holl will only serve as a warm body for the rest of the regular season. He will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season after watching his three-year, $10.2MM ($3.4MM AAV) contract expire.
It was a foregone conclusion that Holl wouldn’t be a part of the Red Wings’ plans this season, but there was little hope the team would be able to clear his salary off the books. After clearing waivers earlier this year, Holl, 34, has spent the entire season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, scoring two goals and 14 points in 41 games with a +19 rating.
Additionally, the Blues have also acquired a very intriguing prospect in Buchelnikov. The 22-year-old was drafted in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft by the Red Wings and has been in the KHL ever since.
He’s made waves in the KHL over the past three years. Playing on three different teams, Buchelnikov has scored 41 goals and 106 points in 159 games. There will be a notable jump once he transitions to professional life in North America, but that’s extremely productive for a younger player in the top professional league on the other hemisphere.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images.
Canucks Trade Lukas Reichel To Bruins
The Canucks have dealt depth forward Lukas Reichel to the Bruins for a sixth-round pick, Pierre LeBrun of TSN reports. It’s Boston’s sixth-round pick in this year’s draft, the team announced.
It’s the second time this year that Reichel has been traded. Unfortunately, the Canucks have taken a step back in terms of asset management. Earlier this season, Vancouver acquired Reichel from the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2027 fourth-round pick.
Reichel, 23, has seen his stock drop significantly over the past several years. The Blackhawks drafted him with the 17th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft after scoring 12 goals and 24 points in 42 games for the DEL’s Eisbären Berlin.
After spending one more year in his native Germany, Reichel moved to North America for the 2021-22 campaign. He played exceptionally well for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs in his first two years, scoring 41 goals and 108 points in 111 games.
Still, he was unable to generate much success in the NHL. Across four and a half years with the Blackhawks, Reichel is credited with 22 goals and 58 points in 174 games with a -60 rating, averaging 13:21 of ice time per game. Furthermore, his 41.3% CorsiFor% at even strength didn’t indicate a breakout was on the horizon, either.
He instantly became a trade candidate at the beginning of the season, and the center-needy Canucks took their shot. It was more of the same in British Columbia, as Reichel will finish his tenure in Vancouver with one assist in 14 games.
Things got so bad with the Canucks that the team placed him on waivers a few months ago, but he ultimately made it through the wire unscathed. He’s been with the Abbotsford Canucks since, scoring six goals and 13 points in 23 games.
From the Bruins’ perspective, this trade was about helping out their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins. Providence has dominated the AHL’s Atlantic Division this season and is looking to make some noise in the Calder Cup playoffs.
Islanders Sign Jean-Gabriel Pageau To Three-Year Extension
The New York Islanders have continued their busy day. According to a team announcement, the Islanders have signed center Jean-Gabriel Pageau to a three-year extension. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reported that Pageau will earn a $4.85MM salary on the extension. PuckPedia later added that he’ll have a full no-trade clause in the first two years of his deal, which will convert to a 16-team no-trade clause in the final year.
At the beginning of the season, few would have expected Pageau to re-up in Long Island. Playing out the last season of a six-year, $30MM contract, Pageau was believed to be an early trade candidate considering that the Islanders were largely viewed as a rebuilding club.
Instead, the team caught fire under a new front office regime and the emergence of standout defenseman Matthew Schaefer. Poised for a postseason spot, New York will come out of deadline day with Ondřej Palát, Brayden Schenn, and a new contract for Pageau.
Factoring in the acquisition of Schenn, many believed he would become the heir-apparent to Pageau down the middle of the ice for the Islanders. Now, the team will have formidable center depth for the next three years, and that’s without including youngster Calum Ritchie.
Although he didn’t become the second-line center the Islanders were hoping he would become, Pageau has remained extremely consistent. Over the last five years, Pageau has scored 70 goals and 183 points in 363 games, typically netting between 35 and 40 points. Additionally, he’s one of the best faceoff takers in the NHL, averaging a 57.2% success rate in the dot over that stretch.
The only drawback from the Islanders’ perspective is that this extension will take Pageau through his age-36 season. There’s a good chance that Pageau’s offensive capabilities will have dropped off by then, and a $4.85MM cap hit is a chunky price for a center that may be isolated to a fourth-line role by then.
Regardless, it’s clear that New York was intent on rewarding their players at the deadline. There’s a strong rejuvenation happening in the organization right now, and it’s clear the front office wants to keep the core together for the next few seasons.
Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.
Kings To Acquire Scott Laughton From Maple Leafs
The Kings have acquired center Scott Laughton from the Maple Leafs in exchange for a third-round pick, John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor reports. The selection will upgrade to a second-round choice if L.A. comes from behind to make the playoffs, per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. The draft pick will be in 2026, whether it’s in the second or third round, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Los Angeles, still only three points out of a playoff spot, has toed the line between selling and buying over the last 24 hours. They’ve made two moves of each, trading away Warren Foegele and Corey Perry while signing Mathieu Joseph and now acquiring Laughton, a pending UFA who will cost $1.5MM down the stretch. In doing so, they’ve sent away a third-rounder but netted a second-rounder each for Foegele and Perry while upgrading 2026 third-rounders in a pick swap with Ottawa in the Foegele deal.
After giving up a first-rounder and forward prospect Nikita Grebenkin to land Laughton from the Flyers with 50% retention at last year’s deadline, the Leafs turn around and sell him at a loss here. With Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and a combo of Max Domi and Nicolas Roy ahead of him on the depth chart at center, he never held anything more than a fourth-line role for the Leafs. After getting top-nine minutes for a stretch in Philadelphia, he didn’t put up the kind of offensive production Toronto hoped for. He ends his tenure in the GTA with a 10-6–16 scoring line in 63 games with a -3 rating.
The Kings, in need of centers now and for next season, likely saw value in trying to land Laughton now – both to aid with their outside chance at the playoffs and to give them extra time to work out an extension if they were set to pursue him in free agency this summer anyway. A well-regarded defensive piece, he does excel in the faceoff dot, winning 56.7% of them this season. He didn’t fare so well in the possession department in heavy defensive deployment for the Leafs, though, only controlling 40.5% of shot attempts and 39.9% of expected goals at 5-on-5. Those should improve if he’s not stressed so heavily in D-zone starts in L.A.
Laughton could factor in as the Kings’ third-line center to start while Quinton Byfield works his way back from an upper-body injury. They’re currently running 23-year-old rookie Kenny Connors, with all of two games of NHL experience under his belt, in the 3C slot ahead of Samuel Helenius. With top-line fixture Anže Kopitar in the final few weeks of his NHL career, the Kings were anticipated to get stretched thin down the middle next season anyway, so they’ll likely hope to reach a deal with Laughton to fortify their bottom-six depth for the next couple of years.
Ducks Trade Ryan Strome To Flames
Veteran forward Ryan Strome is heading from the Ducks to the Flames, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. It’s a seventh-round pick in 2027 headed the other way, per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. The Flames have confirmed the deal.
Strome, 32, is in the penultimate year of his deal, paying $5MM per season. That’s quickly turned into a negative-value deal with Strome struggling to even stick in the lineup this year. He’s had just three goals and nine points in 33 games, plummeting from the six straight seasons of 40-plus points he’d carried in 2025-26.
Strome’s season started on the injured list with an upper-body issue. It’s unclear if it’s been plaguing him for the whole season, but that would provide an explanation for his cratering offense. He’s been a healthy scratch for extended periods as of late as a result. He drew into the lineup against the Islanders on Wednesday, his first appearance since Jan. 26.
It’s not so much a cap dump by Anaheim, who have plenty of space. It’s more of a high-cost pickup by the Flames to give them more flexibility in reaching the cap floor next season. The salary cap floor next season will be $76.9MM, and while the Flames are currently projected to exceed that by nearly $10MM with Strome in tow, they’ll continue to look to move out veterans – Blake Coleman and Nazem Kadri chief among them – that could put them in danger of being below the floor next year if they’re not active in free agency. He also gives Calgary some center depth if they do end up moving Kadri, although he has played mostly on the wing in Anaheim this year.
Blackhawks Acquire Derrick Pouliot
Speaking on Daily Faceoff Live, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports that the Chicago Blackhawks are acquiring defenseman Derrick Pouliot from the New York Rangers. Pouliot has spent the entire 2025-26 campaign with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Scott Power of The Athletic reported that forward Aidan Thompson will head to New York.
Pouliot is nearly exclusively an AHL talent at this point in his career. Since the 2019-20 season, Pouliot has tallied six assists in 26 NHL contests, averaging 14:45 of ice time split between the St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, Seattle Kraken, San Jose Sharks, and Dallas Stars.
Still, he’s been a stable top-four presence in the AHL throughout that stretch. Since joining the Stars organization ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, Pouliot has registered 18 goals and 127 points in 186 games.
Despite being a rebuilding club for the last several years, the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs don’t have that kind of stability on the blue line. Prospect Kevin Korchinski is the team’s leading scorer among defensemen with two goals and 23 points in 45 games. Pouliot will immediately become the team’s offensive leader on the blue line, despite playing in seven more games than Korchinski.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that Pouliot will enjoy a trip through the Calder Cup playoffs with the IceHogs. The team is on the outside looking in with a 19-31-2-2 record. They’re currently ranked sixth in the AHL’s Central Division. They would have to find their way into the top five of the division to qualify for the postseason.
Meanwhile, shortly before the trade was made official, the Blackhawks recalled Thompson from the AHL, so he’ll presumably join the Rangers’ NHL roster. He is in his first full professional season, scoring six goals and 15 points in 40 games.
Still, he’s not that far removed from being a standout forward for the University of Denver. From 2022 to 2025, Thompson scored 42 goals and 117 points in 120 games for the Pioneers. He was drafted with the 90th overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft, making this a quality return for the Rangers.
Kings, Mathieu Joseph Agree To Terms
The Kings have agreed to terms on a contract with winger Mathieu Joseph after he cleared unconditional waivers today to become a free agent, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reports. The deal runs for the remainder of the season at a prorated cap hit of $900K, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Joseph, 29, had his contract with the Blues terminated to find an opportunity elsewhere at a reduced cap hit. He was in the final season of a four-year deal at a $2.95MM cap hit and forfeited roughly $500K in actual cash by opting for the termination and landing a prorated contract in Hollywood.
Los Angeles has signaled they’re dropping out of the playoff race after a tough stretch out of the Olympic break, dealing away wingers Warren Foegele and Corey Perry in the last 24 hours. With an injury list that also includes Joel Armia, Quinton Byfield, Kevin Fiala, and Andrei Kuzmenko, though, they were simply in desperate need of bodies up front to fill spots for the stretch run. They’ll find one for free and for cheap in Joseph, who wins a chance to continue contributing in an NHL role for the last few weeks of the season to hopefully boost his stock heading into free agency.
While Joseph brings some good speed and physicality, he’s been one of the league’s worst finishers over the past couple of years. That won’t help out a Kings team that shoots at just 9.3% too much, but he’ll still bring over 450 games of experience while helping L.A. avoid overstressing some underbaked forward prospects over the next few weeks. He’d put up two goals and 11 points in 39 showings in St. Louis this year before landing on waivers, averaging 12:41 per night.