DETROIT – Will the Detroit Red Wings buy, sell or stand pat this season?

That likely will be determined closer to the March 5 trading deadline, not the Feb. 7 trading deadline.

Because of the Olympic break (Feb. 9-24), the NHL has instituted a trading freeze that goes into effect on Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. and runs until noon on Feb. 23.

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland indicated on Wednesday that nothing is brewing, so it doesn’t appear as if the club will make a move anytime soon.

“The phone is ringing a little bit; I’m calling a little bit,” Holland said. “With the Olympic break coming, I don’t sense a lot of activity.

“I talked to a few managers the last few days; there’s not much going on.”

The Red Wings are on the fringe of a playoff position in the Eastern Conference, one of several teams competing for two wild-card spots. They could be anywhere from seventh to 13th in the conference depending on the day’s results. They have five games until the Olympic break and three more after the break before the trading deadline.

“We have to play our way into being a buyer,” Holland said. “There’s no use spending assets unless we play our way into a buyer position.”

Even if they look to buy, they have to weigh the cost in what could be a thin pool of available players, with few teams out of playoff contention.

The salary cap also presents a problem. The Red Wings will be over the cap when all their injured players return (Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Stephen Weiss), if everyone else is healthy, even after sending some players back to the Grand Rapids Griffins.

So in order for the Red Wings to acquire a player, they need to shed at least an equal amount of salary.

Buffalo, Edmonton and Calgary are the only clubs out of the playoff race. Florida, the New York Islanders, Winnipeg, Nashville and Dallas might be out of it by the deadline.

Players rumored as possible trade candidates include forwards Matt Moulson and Steve Ott (Sabres), Ales Hemsky (Oilers), Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak (Flames), Devin Setoguchi (Jets), Brad Boyes (Panthers) and Thomas Vanek (Islanders).

“We like our kids,” Holland said. “I don’t know that there’s players available on the market that are better than the kids we got.”

Players like Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco and Luke Glendening give the organization plenty of depth up front. They’re not as deep on defense, but are deep enough that Jakub Kindl hasn’t been able to crack the lineup the past four games. Plus they have some prospects in Grand Rapids with a little NHL experience (Xavier Ouellet, Adam Almquist, Alexey Marchenko) who they could turn to in a pinch.

So if the Red Wings deal, it won’t be for depth, it will be for a top-six forward or a top-four defenseman. There doesn’t appear to be too many of those players available – and the price tag for those who are dangled is sure to be high.

“Nobody is moving superstars,” Holland said. “Those people, for the most part, are getting signed by their teams.

“If we get Pav, Z, Franzen, Weiss back, we’re a deeper team.”

The Red Wings (57 points), coming off a 5-0 loss at the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday, have a key home-and-home series with the Washington Capitals (56 points) – Friday at Joe Louis Arena and Sunday at the Verizon Center.

“The bottom line is we got to win games; we got to stay in the race,” Holland said. “We believe when we get Pav and Z back our lineup is drastically upgraded.”

Zetterberg (back) and Datsyuk (lower-body injury) remain day-to-day. Franzen is not eligible to come off short-term injured reserve until Monday, but there's no telling if he'll be ready to play since he is dealing with concussion-like symptoms.