Trade Deadline Day: KADRI'S BACK!

Avs add Roy and Blankenburg leading up to deadline.

Mar 06, 2026

∙ Paid

Original Post: 9:45 a.m. EST

Today is the day: trade deadline day in the National Hockey League, with the clock set for 3 p.m. EST (1 p.m. MST).

As of Friday morning, the Colorado Avalanche have already made a few moves that we’ll include here while leaving room to update anything else Chris MacFarland might orchestrate before the league office stops taking calls in a few hours.

This has been a weird trade deadline. There hasn’t been much top-tier talent changing teams, largely because the blockbuster move already happened months ago when Quinn Hughes was dealt from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild, taking a lot of the star power away from today’s deadline.

Colorado, meanwhile, appears to be making more fringe-type moves. The deal involving Nazem Kadri that Adrian Dater reported was apparently shot down by Calgary Flames ownership after all the pieces had been put in place.

People took some shots at Dater online for putting that out there, but I also saw the information he was working off of and believed it to be a real possibility as well.

Check with PuckPedia for all the best and correct explanations of transactions, salary-cap structure and draft pick analysis. I love that site.

UPDATE 3:00 p.m. EST

Well that was a whole bunch of nothing. Not just from the Avs, either. Nothing really happened league-wide beyond the Blues shipping off captain Brayden Schenn to the Islanders and then Justin Faulk to the Red Wings after the 3 p.m. deadline. Apparently our old friend Jonathan Drouin was the guy going back from the Island to St. Louis in that deal.

There was some intrigue from a Colorado-perspective mid-afternoon as rumors were spilling out that it was in on Bobby McMann out of Toronto. He would eventually go to Seattle for a second (2027) and a fourth (2026), two picks the Avs have. In fact, Colorado has two picks in each of those specific round.

Nazem Kadri remains in Calgary despite the Flames making a late trade with the Ducks. Given the amount of noise that was made around his place in the Flames plans, I would have to assume he is moved in the offseason around the draft.

I was sweating it a bit in the hour leading up to the deadline that Colorado would go and do something crazy like trade for Evander Kane. Getting Roy yesterday made that unlikely, but you never know.

UPDATE 3:30 p.m. EST

I forgot to add when I wrote the first update that the Avs assigned Gavin Brindley to the AHL’s Eagles. I don’t think he will actually be going down, but due to his contract status and the current parameters of the CBA, player needed to be on the AHL roster by 3 p.m. EST today in order to be eligible to go down at any point the rest of the season. This was a roster maintenance move to give themselves options and flexibility for the stretch run.

UPDATE 3:45 p.m. EST

My main takeaway from the deadline was that the top-three teams in the Central continue to be the trio of clubs who are the most invested in this season. The current playoff format is going to rob the league of having top-tier teams in late playoff match-ups with one of these three likely playing in the conference final against a Pacific team that wouldn’t even make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

The top of the Central made moves this week to improve. The teams at the bottom of the division sold and will be terrible the rest of the way. Colorado has three games remaining against Winnipeg, one more against Chicago and a home-and-home against the Blues in the final week of the season. That is six very winnable games against divisional opponents.

Additionally, there are still a trio of games against the Flames — another seller — and one more versus the Canucks — the worst team in the league by a mile. The schedule bodes well for a team like Colorado looking to build confidence and momentum in the lead up to the postseason.

The East: Carolina did nothing. Tampa did nothing but bring back a player who didn’t win a Cup with them. Montreal did nothing. Buffalo made some moves, but fell through with others that seemingly were done. I wonder how much confidence East GMs have in their ability to actually win the Cup this season. Buffalo needed to make moves to just get to the playoffs for the first time in a generation. But if the other teams don’t truly think they can beat the West’s three best teams, would they mortgage their future on rentals and castoffs just to get smoked in the Final?

BRINDLEY UPDATE: Already recalled by the Avs back to the NHL level, proving that it was a paper transaction to create roster flexibility moving forward.

UPDATE: 4:00 PM EST

HOLY CRAP (sorry for the language!)… Nazem Kadri is back!!! Details still not out yet. But Kadri is returning to Denver.

CMac pushed every chip into the middle of the table and told the rest of the league that this is the year.

The Avs won the deadline. Today with the big splash and all week with getting all their needs addressed and in a situation that didn’t kill their cap.

UPDATE: 4:20 PM EST

Kadri speaking to TSN right now, and I’m pulling some Kadri quotes.

"Ideally this was the top spot.”

“Is this real? For me, this is a very exciting situation!”

Thanked the Calgary Flames for their treatment

“I can’t wait to get to Denver, get to work and see my buddies!”

“One minute you think you’re out the door, you think you’re staying, then you’re gone and then you’re staying. There’s a lot to go through with two working parties to get it done, but I’m happy to be back and to get to work.”

He talked about already having communications with MacKinnon, Landeskog and Cale. It was very evident how much respect and appreciation he has for the Flames, but also how very excited he is to be a member of the Avs again this year and beyond with three-plus years left on this deal he signed fresh off the 2022 Cup win.

UPDATE: 4:34 PM EST

I’ve been glued to the TSN feed for HOURS now. Graig Button named the Avalanche as the winners of the trade deadline and named Chris MacFarland as top GM of the trade deadline season.

“The point of the deadline is to position yourself to be in the best spot to win the Stanley Cup. The Avalanche did that more than any other team in the league. Not just today, but all week.

The panel of five then went through their top-five picks of teams before the deadline and then now with the it passed. All but one panelist had Colorado first before today, but all five conceded that the Avs are the NHL’s premier club in the wake of these roster moves.