BREAKING: Trade Market Warming, USA Plays for Gold, Original Six Matinee, and Other Bullets

With a mid-afternoon start today, let’s start with an interesting comment from another general manager on the NHL’s XM radio station. Bill Armstrong hopped on with my buddies from The Fourth Period on the “Hot Stove” show and said he thinks trade activity is going to pick up sooner than later, and January might see a fair amount of action around the league before the long break for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Interesting note from Armstrong, on the trade market: With the break in schedule for the 4 Nations, he anticipates activity to pick up prior to the tourney and teams may need to decide if they’re buyers or sellers it a little earlier than normal. https://t.co/eR7YnHwWP1

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) January 4, 2025

With the Blackhawks starting to bring up young players like Colton Dach now, and having guys like Landon Slaggert looking ready in Rockford and plenty of veterans in the final/only years of their respective contracts, we might have a busier month than simply waiting for the trade deadline in early March. So stay tuned, Blackhawks fans…

Yesterday I wrote about the Canucks reportedly shopping one/both of their top centers, JT Miller and Elias Pettersson. Elliotte Friedman threw the Blackhawks’ in the ring as a team that should be interested. On Saturday night when he updated a few of his headlines on SportsNet, Freidman said not only are the Canucks preparing for the possibility of trading one or both (or neither) of their stars, but he said he’s now hearing they’ll want a center in the package if they move either of them. Previous reporting said they want/need to help their top-four defensemen.
And now Connor Bedard talking about Dach’s NHL debut:

After a thrilling overtime game saw Finland upset Sweden at the World Juniors, the United States handled their business and dispatched Czechia 4-1. Blackhawks prospect Oliver Moore was back on the wing on the second line and finished the game tied for the team lead with five shots on net. Moore score a late insurance goal. Here’s a good interview Moore did with JP Morosi for NHL Network, talking about the core group of 19-year-olds on the US roster trying to be the first group to win back-to-back WJC titles for the first time ever. The gold medal game is tonight at 6:30 PM CT.

The 19-year-olds leading ⁦@usahockey⁩ at this WJC had an inauspicious start at the ⁦@USAHockeyNTDP⁩. Oliver Moore of ⁦@GopherHockey⁩ spoke with me about how those struggles shaped his team — for the better. Game time is approaching on ⁦@NHLNetwork⁩! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/bYP8rBfmSK— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 5, 2025

The folks at The Athletic handed out their mid-season grades on Saturday and, as you might guess, the Blackhawks got an F from Scott Powers. Here’s what he had to say about the season to date:

The Blackhawks didn’t have a high bar to meet this season. All they had to do was show better than last season. That was the expectation from Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson. So far, they haven’t even reached that. They’re at the bottom of the league in the standings and have already gone through a coaching change. Another top-three draft pick would help the rebuild, but that wasn’t the goal for this season.

https://twitter.com/jkamckenzie/status/1875607275978813694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1875607275978813694%7Ctwgr%5E178efba14fca01f8067e3779abeda6dfea375182%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bleachernation.com%2Fblackhawks%2F2025%2F01%2F05%2Ftrade-market-warming-usa-plays-for-gold-original-six-matinee-and-other-blackhawks-bullets%2F

A reminder: today’s game is on national television again. The Rangers played at Washington in the afternoon yesterday, so they’re flying in for another matinee. Gotta love ESPN/ABC putting the dumpster fire Rangers on national television on consecutive days…

This weekend, #NHL action returns to ABC & ESPN+

🏒 Saturday | Noon ET | #NYR–#ALLCAPS
🎙️ @espnbob, @rayferraro21, @ESPNRefNHL

🏒 Sunday | 3p ET | Rangers-#Blackhawks
🎙️ @MikeMonaco_, @TheRealCally24, @leahhextall, Dave Jacksonpic.twitter.com/vHbJNQ2YK6

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 3, 2025

In the OHL last night, Windsor beat Erie 7-5 because defense was optional. AJ Spellacy had one assist for the winners. Martin Misiak had one goal and one assist for Erie.

In the college ranks, Dominic James picked up an assist on Minnesota-Duluth’s only goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to Alaska Fairbanks.
In Russia, Roman Kantserov scored his 11th goal of the season on Sunday (morning for us).