Nashville Predators

14-Day Quarantine Period in Canada Reduced… Let the Trades Begin?

NHL source confirms report the 14 day quarantine period in Canada has been reduced to 7 days with testing.

by
NHL Trade Talk
March 25, 2021

As per a report by Darren Dreger of TSN today, “NHL source confirms @DavidWCochrane report the 14 day quarantine period in Canada has been reduced to 7 days with testing.” What this means is that Canadian teams who were hesitant to bring players in from U.S. based clubs might be less hesitant and that some of trades rumored to have fallen by the wayside could pop up again in the rumor mill.

NHL source confirms @DavidWCochrane report the 14 day quarantine period in Canada has been reduced to 7 days with testing. This will help NHL clubs navigate trades with US based teams leading up to the April 12 trade deadline.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) March 25, 2021

As Dreger correctly points out, “This will help NHL clubs navigate trades with US based teams leading up to the April 12 trade deadline.” Among them, speculation was the Toronto Maple Leafs had eyes on Mikael Granlund out of Nashville, while Eric Staal was rumored to be on the Edmonton Oilers radar. For Canadian teams that might have been interested in players like Taylor Hall or Rickard Rakell, knowing either won’t have to sit out two weeks before being inserted into the lineups and learning new systems is a huge plus.

Will this change how crazy trade deadline day will be? Perhaps not. There’s still a lot of talk that this could be among the slower trade deadlines in recent history. But, this certainly helps.

This Is Good News for the NHL

Some, of course, are arguing that this was done because the Leafs were heavily pushing for a change and conspiracy theorists will suggest this is the NHL bending over backwards for the franchise. Really, this is important for the interest in the overall product. If trades with Canadian rosters were only going to be made between Canadian rosters, the likelihood of much action was low. A busy trade deadline is good for the NHL.

Will we see talk of trades start to pick up again? There are six Canadian teams still thinking they have a shot at this season’s playoff race. Many of them would like to add before the deadline.

Next: Timing Could Be Right for a Team To Steal Taylor Hall Before Deadline