2026 NHL Trade Deadline set for March 6

We have an official date for the NHL’s Trade Deadline for the 2025-26 season, as it will be held on Friday, March 6th, according to TSN and The Athletic insider Pierre LeBrun.

While LeBrun’s tweet doesn’t specify the time of day that the trade deadline will end, it’s safe to assume that it will come at 3 p.m. EST like it usually does.

The trade deadline is the final day for teams to acquire players that can be eligible for their roster in the playoffs. Teams can still make trades after the deadline, but any player moved in those trades will not be allowed to play on their new team’s playoff roster.

The deadline will come 42 days prior to the end of the 2025-26 regular season, which is the same as the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, after the 2024-25 season’s deadline came only 40 days prior to the end of the season. This length of time was a mutual agreement by the NHL and NHL Players’ Association to avoid the deadline falling on a weekend.

While a lot of the trading occurs in the days leading up to the deadline, the final day always sees plenty of action. Last season’s deadline saw 24 trades occur, including the Carolina Hurricanes sending Mikko Rantanen to the Dallas Stars, the Ottawa Senators acquiring Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund from the Buffalo Sabres and the San Jose Sharks, and the Florida Panthers acquiring a key piece for their Cup-winning team in Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins.

While we won’t know any of the top candidates to be traded during this season until we know how good or bad some teams will be, some players who will garner plenty of attention include Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson, Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro and Seattle Kraken winger Mason Marchment.