Trade Deadline brings flood of emotions

The Coaches Room is a weekly column by one of four former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher. Jim Corsi, David Marcoux, Paul MacLean and Joe Mullen will take turns providing insight.
In this edition, MacLean, former coach of the Ottawa Senators, discusses the effect the NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 26 will have on coaches and players in the next few weeks.

The countdown to the NHL Trade Deadline has begun.
For fans, there will be a lot of excitement and intrigue in the five or so weeks leading up to the deadline. For coaches and players, there will be a lot of angst and uncertainty.
I've gone through it on both ends, so let me take you behind the scenes in each scenario.
First off, here's what a coaching staff and its management team have to deal with:
If you're a team that's contending and you know you are in a good spot approaching the deadline, you're studying your roster and poring over all the statistics in order to improve. A lot of times it comes down to a veteran presence who can stand up when the pressure's on, like at the end of playoff series or playoff games. Is this a guy who can take it home for you? Or can it be a fresh young body from junior hockey or Europe who can help your team?
Either way, if you're a contender, you have to give up something to get what you need. That's the big thing. If you trade the wrong guy, you really have to know your room. You have to make sure you're not giving away a guy who makes a lot of other guys play better.
To be honest, it can be worrisome.

Every day as the deadline approaches, your organization is asking the hard questions. What do we need? Who are we willing to give up? You discuss these things as part of the coaching staff, then you take it upstairs to the general manager, the assistant GM and all the pro scouts. There's a lot of excitement, a lot of tension, a lot of energy in the room. The recurring theme: What do we need to get us over the top?
Of course, if you are at the other end of the barometer, as a coach you're always in it to win and make the playoffs. All of a sudden, you can see the standings and you look at the math and you know the history and you ask yourself, "Wow, what are we going to do?"
Are you a seller? Are you becoming a team that will give opportunity to young players? Are you going to trade some of the veteran players that are important to you? All of this brings a different set of emotions.
Here's the tough part: Any conversation you have with a player informing him he has been traded is a difficult one, believe me. Try explaining to a player in a deadline situation what could be better for him and for the team. It can be a very trying experience.
I've been on both sides -- a buyer and a seller -- and each brings moments of excitement and intensity. But, of course, you want to be the guy who's trying to win a Stanley Cup as opposed to the guy who's giving up players.
Now let's look at it from a player's perspective.
Guys might not read and not watch, although that's tough in an era of social media and smartphones. But they all have family and friends, and they all hear things.
A player always knows what's being said and what's being bandied about concerning him. You're only human if that doesn't affect you. I've gone through it myself; you have a wife and young kids at home. You're settled in with your life, and suddenly you have no control of your own situation.
Hearing your name bandied about is not a comfortable place to be. It's kind of exciting other people are interested in you, but most people are pleased in the situations they're in.

You've got to be a pretty special guy to have all that talk around you and not have it affect you. It's a big human factor. But the guys who still can go out and perform at top levels, those are the real pros.
I was rumored to be leaving Winnipeg the last two, three years I played there (1985-88). There was always talk they needed someone who could score 50 goals to play with future Hall of Fame center Dale Hawerchuk. I always told then-GM John Ferguson that, well, I get 40.
Meanwhile, whether it was my brothers or my wife or her dad, they'd always read about it in the paper. It could be very disconcerting. Your family wonders what's going on. No one likes to pick up their family and just start moving. But in the hockey business, that's part of it. I know for me, I've moved far too many times.
Things are different now, too. Now kids have phones and they know instantly what's going on thanks to the internet or their twitter feeds. It can be a distraction, especially if a team is on the bubble -- and right now in the NHL, there are a lot of teams on the bubble.
In the end, with the 2018 deadline approaching, I do know this: It's going to be an emotional ride for all parties concerned.