DENVER -- The past 48 hours have been about as hectic and strange as possible for new Colorado Avalanche forward Jamie McGinn, who was checking out NHL trades and rumors with his San Jose Sharks teammates Monday afternoon while using the team plane's WiFi system on the flight home from Minnesota.

"We were kind of just following it to keep ourselves entertained," McGinn said during a phone interview today. "One of the guys saw that San Jose had acquired (Daniel) Winnik in a trade, but they didn't know for who. Sure enough, two minutes later I got a tap on the shoulder to go and talk to (coach) Todd McLellan. I knew something was up then.

"The trade was a little bit of a shock at first. It was kind of a weird feeling being around the guys and not being able to get off the plane. Now I'm looking at the big picture and I'm really excited. I'm really happy to be an Avalanche and I see a lot of potential when I look at the lineup and I'm really happy to be a part of their plans."

ST. LOUIS -- Doug Armstrong and the rest of the St. Louis Blues front-office employees were conducting business as usual Monday, like their counterparts around the NHL, trying to assemble one final push as the League's Trade Deadline came and went.

But for the Blues' general manager and the rest of the team's staff, assembled in a hotel suite in Calgary, pulling off any sort of deal to re-tool a squad that's among the NHL's best was a long shot at best, a prospect they had come to accept even before Monday arrived.

Armstrong was serious in his remarks earlier this month when he said he is more interested in seeing the current iteration of these Blues -- with the injured players filtered back into the lineup -- tackle the stretch adrive and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It's still a mystery when some of the injured players might return, but as the Blues play their final 19 regular-season games, it will be a case of what you see is what you get.

Less than 24 hours after his general manager revealed that Rick Nash requested a trade, the Blue Jackets captain took the high road when he spoke to the media at Nationwide Arena in Columbus after the morning skate.

Nash, who was not traded prior to Monday's 3 p.m. ET deadline, confirmed that he asked to be traded because he was looking out for the best interests of both himself and the Blue Jackets. Columbus GM Scott Howson revealed the trade request in a press conference shortly after Monday's deadline passed.

He said he knew he could fetch the organization several important assets, including prospects and high draft picks, to help their rebuild. At the same time, Nash, who has a no-movement clause in his contract, offered the club a short list of teams he'd be willing to accept a trade to in order to compete for a Stanley Cup.

Nash did not reveal the teams on his list, but reportedly the Rangers were making a serious push to acquire him Monday.

"I was informed by management that there was a rebuild, a reshape of the team, and I personally felt I could be a huge part of that, toward bringing assets in," Nash said according to a transcript posted on the website of the Columbus Dispatch. "I think that was in my view that was the best thing for the team, the organization, and personally for my career."

The New York Rangers have shown the willingness to pay the price on the ice all season and for that reason, GM Glen Sather wasn't willing to pay the price to land Rick Nash.

The East-leading Rangers, who are the NHL's top team based on points percentage, earned their 40th win of the season Monday, beating the New Jersey Devils 2-0 several hours after Sather decided against tinkering with his young squad at the NHL Trade Deadline.

But, until the trading window officially closed at 3 p.m., the rumors persisted that Sather wanted to land Nash, but the Blue Jackets couldn't find a willing partner to meet their asking price.

TAMPA, Fla. – The Montreal Canadiens were one of the few clear sellers for Monday's NHL Trade Deadline, and general manager Pierre Gauthier had some pieces for sale.

Andrei Kostitsyn

Left Wing - NSH

GOALS: 12 | ASST: 12 | PTS: 24
SOG: 93 | +/-: -8

But ultimately, Gauthier was only able to unload disgruntled forward Andrei Kostitsyn to the Nashville Predators, and even that represented a challenge.

"It wasn't easy to trade Andrei Kostitsyn," Gauthier said Monday at the team's hotel in Tampa. "When we get to these times we usually evaluate how we are going to go forward, and we thought that going forward he was not going to be part of it. That was our decision and that's why we made the trade."

Kotstitsyn, an impending unrestricted free agent, was sent to the Predators for a second-round draft pick in 2013 and the conditional fifth-round draft pick Montreal had originally sent to Nashville in the trade for defenseman Hal Gill. Gauthier also picked up rugged forward Brad Staubitz off re-entry waivers from the Minnesota Wild.

DENVER – Unlike a year ago, when a second-half meltdown sent the Colorado Avalanche tumbling to 29th place in the NHL standings, the team is making a serious push this season to earn a Western Conference playoff position.

Jamie McGinn

Left Wing - COL

GOALS: 12 | ASST: 12 | PTS: 24
SOG: 104 | +/-: 1

The Avalanche took a three-game winning streak and 6-2-2 run into Monday night's game against the Anaheim Ducks at the Pepsi Center. The Avalanche had 68 points – matching last season's total – and trailed eighth-place Dallas by two points and seventh-place San Jose by three with 19 games to play.

"This year we're about winning," Avalanche general manager Greg Sherman said after acquiring left wing Jamie McGinn and two prospects from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for forwards TJ Galiardi and Daniel Winnik, along with a seventh-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft.

The trade was the Avalanche's second in a week, following the acquisition of right wing Steve Downie from Tampa Bay in exchange for defenseman Kyle Quincey, who was sent to Detroit for a first-round pick.

VANCOUVER -- Cody Hodgson is a leading candidate for the Calder Trophy, a highly-skilled center with all kinds of offensive upside. He just wasn't the right fit for the Vancouver Canucks anymore.

Zack Kassian

Right Wing - VAN

GOALS: 3 | ASST: 4 | PTS: 7
SOG: 36 | +/-: -1

In a shocking trade of top prospects, the Canucks traded Hodgson, a 22-year-old who had 16 goals and 33 points despite playing less than 13 minutes a night, to the Buffalo Sabres shortly before Monday's deadline in exchange for Zack Kassian, another first-round pick with an entirely different skill set.
 
Vancouver, which had added checking center Samuel Pahlsson from Columbus earlier in the day, also got puck-moving, power play defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani in the deal with the Sabres receiving spare blueliner Alexander Sulzer in return.

The move made sense in the long term given Hodgson, picked 10th at the 2008 Entry Draft, was stuck behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler on the Canucks' depth chart. But in the short term it seems more about Hodgson not being well-suited to play a shutdown role as a third line center. As soon as Pahlsson was added earlier in the day -- for prospect defender Taylor Ellington and two fourth-round draft picks in 2012 -- there were questions about Hodgson's future. They were answered a few hours later.

Heading into Monday's NHL Trade Deadline, there was plenty of speculation that Buffalo Sabres GM Darcy Regier would move scrappy center Paul Gaustad for the right price.

Alexander Sulzer

Defense - BUF

GOALS: 0 | ASST: 1 | PTS: 1
SOG: 11 | +/-: 6

He did.

A large portion of the hockey world thought Regier was done after shipping Gaustad and next year's fourth-round pick to the Nashville Predators for their first-round selection at the 2012 NHL Draft.

But just as the deadline struck Monday at 3 p.m., Regier agreed to what many think was the move of the day.

Desperately needing to shore up the center position, Regier sent highly-regarded right wing Zach Kassian and young defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for talented rookie Cody Hodgson and defenseman Alexander Sulzer. 

CHICAGO – It wasn't the splash that many Chicago Blackhawks fans hoped for, but Stan Bowman is happy with the two moves he did pull off before Monday's trade deadline expired.

The Blackhawks' general manager landed an experienced puck-moving defenseman in Johnny Oduya from the Winnipeg Jets for second- and third-round picks in the 2013 NHL Draft and also sent enforcer John Scott to the New York Rangers for a fifth-round pick in the 2012 Draft. After trading pricey, puck-moving defenseman Brian Campbell and not re-signing another puck-mover in Chris Campoli -- last year's deadline acquisition -- Bowman knew there was a glaring need for Oduya.

"He's one of the better skating defensemen in the NHL," Bowman said following the deadline's passing. "He's got experience. He's played on some good teams and played a lot of minutes. I think with our team right now, he's going to come in and be a calming influence on some of our players."

NASHVILLE – The Nashville Predators had made up their collective minds that they were going to acquire center Paul Gaustad from Buffalo.

That's why, in the end, they paid such a high price.

Determined to upgrade the position, Nashville traded center Jerred Smithson, a player with a somewhat similar skill set to Gaustad's, to Florida last Friday.

In the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Gaustad, 30, who has seven goals and 10 assists and ranks in the top 10 in faceoff percentage this season, the Predators got a bigger, better version of Smithson, who was a valuable player for them but who had one goal and four assists in 53 games this season. In the end, Nashville ended up giving up a first-round pick for Gaustad while receiving a fourth-rounder in 2013 in return.