NHL Trade Deadline Update

The NHL's GMs have gotten off to an early start on the trade deadline, with a couple of blockbuster deals that have already changed the face of a couple teams around the league.

Brian Burke has the tough task of trying to turn around a struggling Toronto franchise that has slumped to one of the worst records in the league this year. Burke was the first to act this season, acquiring superstar defenseman Dion Phaneuf from the Calgary Flames and former Conn Smythe winner Jean Sebastian Giguere from Anaheim in the same day. Burke dealt away a number of players throughout the day, moving Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Ian White and Jamal Mayers to Calgary in return for Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom and defensive prospect Keith Aulie. In the deal that brought a stable goalie to Toronto in the form of Giguere, Burke moved goaltender Vesa Toskala and under-achieving winger Jason Blake. On the day, Burke actually ended up gaining an extra million dollars in cap space.

The next big deal to go down involved the Calgary Flames and the New York Rangers. It took a couple of days to get it all hammered out, but in the end, the Rangers were able to convince the Flames to move Olli Jokinen to the Big Apple, in an attempt to give superstar Marian Gaborik some help up front. The Rangers sent Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik to Calgary in exchange for Jokinen and grinder Brandon Prust. Calgary has looked a bit out of sorts since the two trades, and will need to get their game back in order quickly if they wish to make the playoffs in a very tight Western Conference.

The biggest deal of all came just this past week, with superstar Ilya Kovalchuk finally being traded from Atlanta. Kovalchuk turned down a $101 million offer to stay in Atlanta, and will undoubtedly be testing the free agent market in the summer. Until then, he will be bringing his incredible offensive skillset to the New Jersey Devils, who sent Atlanta Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, prospect Patrice Cormier and their first round pick in order to acquire the superstar. The teams will also swap 2nd round picks at the 2010 draft. The Thrashers were looking for pieces that would help them to succeed this year, as well as build for the future, and GM Don Waddell did a pretty good job of trying to ensure that his team did not end up losing their star player without receiving some blocks to build on.

There will be a trade freeze in place during the two week break for the Winter Olympics, beginning on February 12, and the NHL trade deadline is on March 3, leaving very little time for negotiation between the end of the Olympics and the trade deadline. Based on what we've seen already, there could be a few more deals made before the trade freeze this Friday.