What is the NHL Holiday Roster Freeze? Explaining why teams can't make any moves next week

Dec. 24 through Dec. 26 the NHL is on their Christmas break; there are no scheduled practices or games with locker rooms remaining closed.

Dec. 19 at 11:59 p.m. local time to Dec. 28 at 12:01 a.m. local time is a different kind of break; the annual NHL Holiday Roster Freeze. It's exactly what it sounds like it is, no roster movement, but there's a bit more to it than that.

What is the NHL holiday roster freeze?

Per NHL PR, the freeze will halt all trades, loans and waiver activity for "all players on an NHL active roster, injured reserve, or with non-roster and injured non-roster status... with respect to waivers, trades and loans, subject to the exceptions provided for in CBA Article 16.5 (d)."

Wrapping things up before the holidays, like we all are at work, the league saw a handful of players clear waivers or hit the waiver wire just in time on Wednesday.

A few teams also completed some last-minute before the freeze trades just in the nick of time.

The New York Rangers sent forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen and third-round and sixth-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft. The struggling Rangers have given in to the idea that shaking up their roster in an attempt to fix the issues that seem to be plaguing the squad may be their best course of action; they dealt captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks earlier this month. In return the Ducks sent defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft to the Rangers.

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired defenseman Pierre-Oliver Joseph from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for future considerations. The Blues, like the Rangers, have also been busy this month. They made moves with the Ducks as well, acquiring defenseman Cam Fowler and a 4th-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft from Anaheim on Dec. 14. In return, the Ducks gained defenseman Jeremie Biakabutuka and a second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

The Montréal Canadiens received defenseman Alexandre Carrier from the Nashville Predators and sent the Preds defenseman Justin Barron in return.

Some teams are likely getting desperate for solutions to save their season; but they'll have to wait until the freeze is over to act on it. We could then see a flurry of movement in the first part of 2025 up until the trade deadline on March 7.

Time to freeze (and hopefully relax) for a week!