Below is a timeline of one of the busiest and newsworthy days of the year for the league.
10:30 a.m.: Colorado makes its first trade of the day in a minor-league deal with the Arizona Coyotes. The Avs send Joe Whitney, the captain of the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League, to the Coyotes in exchange for Brendan Ranford, who had been playing for the Tucson Roadrunners.
11:30 a.m.: An hour after its first trade, the Avalanche makes another swap of minor leaguers. Colorado acquired Hershey goaltender Joe Cannata, a Washington Capitals prospect, for defenseman Cody Corbett, who had split this season between the Rampage and the Colorado Eagles of the ECHL.
1:00 p.m.: The team bus leaves the Avs' downtown Ottawa hotel and makes its way to Canadian Tire Centre for practice, but one player was missing from the trip. Jarome Iginla stayed back at the hotel as he was about to be traded to the Los Angeles Kings. It takes the bus 25 minutes to get to the suburb arena.
1:20 p.m.: Before the team bus could arrive at the rink, the Avalanche officially announce that Iginla is traded to Los Angeles. In return, Colorado receives a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
Upon arriving at the arena, the Avalanche begins to prepare for practice. The players get treatment for any bumps or bruises from the previous night's contest in Philadelphia, stretch and warm up for practice. Many of the Avs play the typical two-touch soccer game, but the game is soon put on hold as Andreas Martinsen is pulled aside to take a phone call to let him know he's been traded.
2:25 p.m.: Colorado announces that it has acquired Swiss forward Sven Andrighetto from the Montreal Canadiens for Martinsen. Andrighetto is not expected to play on Thursday in Ottawa, but he could join the club on Saturday for the Avalanche's game at the Winnipeg Jets.
2:45 p.m.: The Avs hold a team meeting to go over video from the game against the Flyers and prepare for the following day's contest versus the Senators. The coaches push practice back to 3:30 p.m. to accommodate the meeting.
3:00 p.m.: The NHL's Trade Deadline passes, and no more trades are allowed during the regular season. A few trades do trickle in after 3:00 p.m., which is allowed as long as the league is notified prior to the deadline. In total, 18 trades involving 33 players occurred on the day, the lowest amount since the shortened 2012-13 season (17 trades, 30 players).
3:30 p.m.: The Avalanche players take the ice and participate in an hour-long practice. When the team has had days between games, it has elected to have longer practices and skip the traditional game day morning skates. This will be the case for Thursday.
4:00 p.m.: While the players and coaches practice, Colorado executive vice president/general manager Joe Sakic holds a conference call with the media to discuss the club's moves on the day. Sakic, who remained in Denver working with his hockey operations staff, reiterated that he was only going to make trades if it helped the club long term and that he continues to want to get younger and faster. He again mentioned that he wasn't going to move a core player just to move them if it didn't help the team's future.
4:35 p.m.: The players begin to come off the ice, where they're greeted by the Ottawa media waiting for them in the locker room to discuss the day's trade deadline.
4:55 p.m.: Following the locker room media availability, head coach Jared Bednar speaks to the press and reveals that the team will recall forward J.T. Compher from San Antonio later in the day. The former University of Michigan captain will meet the club in Ottawa and could make his NHL debut on Thursday. Bednar also announces that Calvin Pickard will start in goal for the Avs' game against the Senators.
5:18 p.m.: Colorado's team bus departs from the arena and makes the long trip back to downtown Ottawa. The club hits some rush-hour traffic on the roads but still gets to the hotel before 6:00 p.m.
The Avalanche players have the rest of the night to relax, get dinner and rest up for the next day's game.
