Potential Trade Deadline Wackiness

The below post is for entertainment purposes only. It turns out my countingwas off, thus everything I wrote below is pretty much irrelevant. I'm leaving itup so you can openly mock me. I can take it. the actual trade deadline will fallon (if I got the math right this time) March 3 which features an evening game at home against the Panthers. So we could still be short a guy or two, but the drama won't be at the last minute.It's really, really early to be talking trade deadline, but it came upyesterday in some planning meetings for this season as we talked about keydates during the season. Last year the deadline fell on a Tuesday (Feb. 26) and the Thrashers hadbeen on the road for almost two weeks. Players left for a five-game roadtrip wondering if they'd be suiting up for the home team at Philips again.Marian Hossa pretty much knew at that point that he'd played his last homegame as a Thrasher. When the Thrashers hit the ice in Montreal four and ahalf hours after the deadline they did so without Hossa and Pascal Dupuisand without the players they'd beentraded for. Earlier in the day we hadcalled up Bryan Little, Colin Stuart and Joel Kwiatkowski in case theywere needed in such a scenario.Allthree of them suited up.Well, if you thought that scenario was a little odd, just wait until thisyear. The CBA states that the deadline is at 3pm on "the fortieth dayimmediately preceding the final day of the Regular Season" (Section 13.12(j)). By my calculations that puts it on March 8 this season at 3pm. guesswhat? We have a home game on March 8 at 3pm against Calgary. It's clearlytoo early to speculate over whether we'll be buyers or sellers at thedeadline, but odds are we'll be active as usual. So imagine this scenario-the players could be on the ice warming up wondering if they're playing ornot. A guy could get called over to the bench to be notified that he's justbeen dealt. Meanwhile there could be a handful of call-ups from Chicagowaiting to see if they were going to suit up. If four or five guys are onthe block there might not even be roster room to have enough call-ups onhand to replace them all should they all get dealt. What if we make a tradewith Calgary? Could the equipment guys get new nameplates stitched on thejerseys fast enough for them to play in that game? Would they have matchinggear? With the trade deadline falling on a Sunday we won't be the only team inthis scenario. There are at least four 3pm games on March 8 (a fifth is TBD)so we're sure to see some bizarre situations. Given that it takes time forthe.nhl to approve contracts it's entirely possible (and even likely) that adeal will be done a few minutes before 3pm but not approved or announceduntil the game is underway. The player would be scratched in that scenario,but can you imagine the anxiousness at Philips Arena as fans speculate aboutwho the scratched player just got traded for?It's still months and months away, but its a date to circle on yourcalendar.Source