For a contending NHL team, the trade deadline represents the last chance to gear up before the postseason. It’s a tricky process. In a league where 16 teams make the playoffs and 20 or more are still in the race at the time of the trade freeze, the pool of sellers is always smaller than the list of potential buyers. A team looking to add has to make the right choice from the small list of hypothetically available players, while at the same time doing all it can to not jeopardize its future by emptying the cupboard of picks and prospects.



In that context, teams will inevitably make compromises. Sometimes they make the wrong ones.



As we did last year, we’re going to focus on a few of the riskier players believed to be available prior to the deadline.



LW Andreas Athanasiou, Detroit Red Wings



Most of the players potentially available at the 2020 deadline are relatively easy to value because players who resemble them have been moved recently.