2025 NHL Trade Deadline to be March 7
Information has been released about several key dates for the 2024-25 NHL season. Multiple reports have stated that the trade deadline will be on March 7, 2025 at 3 p.m. EST.
The deadline is exactly 40 days before the end of the regular season (April 17), which is standard under the current collective bargaining agreement. Over the last two seasons, the deadline was 42 days prior, which came from a mutual agreement between the NHL and the Players’ Association to avoid it falling on a weekend.
2024-25 NHL key dates:
Holiday roster freeze: Dec. 20-27, 2024
NHL 4 Nations Face-Off: Feb. 10-21, 2025
Trade deadline: Fri, Mar. 7, 2025 (3pm ET)
Last day of reg-season: April 17, 2025
First day of 2025 Playoffs: April 19, 2025
Last possible day of 2025 SCF: June 23, 2025
The trade deadline is always one of the biggest days of the year. It’s every team’s last chance to add talent to their roster from elsewhere to bolster their squad heading into the playoffs. Last season, there were 23 trades made on deadline day (March 8), with 19 coming across the wire on trade deadline day during the 2022-23 season.
Along with the trade deadline, we now know that the roster freeze around the holidays will be Dec. 20-27, meaning no players can be traded, promoted or demoted during that time. This has been instituted to allow players the opportunity to spend that part of the season with their families without worrying they might be on the move.
In conjunction with the final day of the regular season, the opening day of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs is set for April 19. Lord Stanley’s Cup being handed out no later than June 23.
The league will pause its season in February to hold the first-ever NHL 4 Nations Faceoff, featuring Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States. The break for most of the league will go from Feb. 10-21, as the tournament begins on Feb. 12 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, with the championship game taking place at TD Garden in Boston on Feb. 20.