Insider: Contract Talks & Trades "Definitely" Coming During 4 Nations Break

While the best of the best hockey players in the world are spending the next week and a half going head-to-head on the ice, it sounds like some of them will be returning to NHL teams that might look a little different than the ones they left.

There is no roster freeze during the 4 Nations break, and according to insider Elliotte Friedman, speaking on NHL Network Radio on Wednesday morning:

I think teams are really sitting down with their UFAs (and their reps) to figure out, 'Are we gonna be able to keep any of these guys?'... And if the answer is no, then I think they'll use the rest of this break to determine the market.
There was (one UFA) who told me that they're definitely under the impression that when everybody reconvenes... their teams won't all look the same. They are expecting moves to happen.

He even added that "it was like a goodbye" for some players when they left their dressing rooms after their last game before the break.

"There is gonna be business done," Friedman added on The Fan Hockey Show. "One thing I was definitely told is that there will be contract negotiations... This is, in a lot of ways, a hard reset on the business of the league."

Specifically naming players like Mikko Rantanen of the Carolina Hurricanes, Brock Nelson of the NY Islanders, and the Montreal Canadiens' Jake Evans, their futures as potential trade candidates are very much under the microscope by their front offices over the next week or so.

Word emerged last week that it's a possibility that the superstar Rantanen, just acquired last month in a shocking trade from the Colorado Avalanche, could get flipped if the Canes don't make any headway on a new contract.