Why is the 2024 NHL trade market so quiet?

While many anticipated that this year’s trade deadline would be a bit underwhelming, many thought it would be due to the assets available for teams to acquire. Instead, it’s also been because of the lack of action.

While we still sit almost 10 days from the deadline, which leaves plenty of time for some more trades, it’s been very quiet on the trade front in recent weeks. After we got two big trades in three days when the Vancouver Canucks acquired Elias Lindholm and the Winnipeg Jets acquired Sean Monahan at the start of February, there’s been just about nothing in terms of trade deadline moves. In fact, up until the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Emil Bemstrom last week, there hadn’t been any trades at all.

So, what’s the hold up? Are teams cautious with a weak trade market this season? Is it the fact that a lot of the best assets are on teams that are still somewhat in the playoff race, and are taking their time to determine their approach for the deadline? Are the cup contenders just waiting to accrue salary cap space? Frank Seravalli talked about the lack of trade action on Daily Faceoff Live, and why teams haven’t been making any moves just yet.

Frank Seravalli: It’s a quiet market, and a lot of managers think that it’s a pretty thin market as well, so I think that’s part of the holdup. I think they view maybe a small handful of true difference makers, I think they’ve been kicking tires on a bunch of other players that have term, and short of that, it’s like “Well, is this guy a perfect fit for our bottom six? What does this depth defenseman look like and how different is he from what we already currently have?” There’s been a lot of that stuff going on.

You can watch the full episode here…