Active roster size:Prior to the Trade Deadline, NHL teams must limit its active rosters to 23 players (20 dress for games, 18 skaters and two goalies). After the Deadline, rosters can expand to any size, provided the group still fits under the NHL salary cap. This expansion helps teams struggling with nagging injuries, allowing reinforcements without putting a player on a more restrictive injured reserve list (which shelves a player for at least seven days). That injured player might simply need a game or two off to heal for the stretch run. Some coaches are happy to have the extra bodies in practices, resting regulars but still to run drills. This is particularly true during the players when select minor-league players finished with their American Hockey League seasons are called up as reserves. Speaking of AHL players, there are rosters rules regarding the Deadline but the most relevant impact is contending teams might lose top players that are part of NHL trades.
OK, let's talk more fun stuff: Sports fans like to refer to buyers and sellers during trade times. In the NHL, that means "buyer" GMs are working on playoff qualification and, most often, finding the magical player or three who can lead to a Stanley Cup win. NHL Seattle GM Ron Francis was involved in such an exchange when he was traded along with Hartford Whalers teammates Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings to the Pittsburgh Penguins in early March 1991. Hartford received John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker in return. Most media members did not consider Pittsburgh a top Cup contender before the trade. Francis and the Penguins were 6-0-1 in their first seven games following the trade. They closed the regular season with a 9-3-2 overall run to win a first-ever division title. Francis scored two goals and notched nine assists in those 14 games, while Samuelsson (1G, 4A, 37 penalty minutes) and Jennings (1G, 3 A, 26 penalty minutes) provided the muscle and nastiness in front of its own net that Pittsburgh was lacking. The Penguins won the Cup that June and repeated the title feat in 1992. Two decades later, many NHL experts still consider it the most lopsided trade ever made at Deadline.