It's time to remember the Holiday Roster Freeze, a winter tradition akin to discovering you do know the words to all the Christmas carols the first time you hit the grocery store in late November.

The roster freeze is a general limitation on trades and movement between the NHL and AHL from midnight on December 19 to midnight on December 27, and there are no waivers in this period. There are a lot of exceptions to the freeze, though, as the point is to keep players from having to pick up and move over the Christmas break, not to punish a team for an injury.

The important date is actually December 11, because only players recalled from the AHL after that date and on emergency recall can be sent back during the pre-Christmas part of the freeze period. That is the most onerous limitation on player movement.

If, for example, the Leafs want to send Fraser Minten down, they have to do it by the start of the Freeze period or wait until after it's over. Dennis Hildeby is on emergency recall and can be sent to the AHL up to the 23rd.

How this will play out for the Leafs makes more sense if you look at the schedule.

Schedule

The Leafs have two days off this week, Monday and Tuesday, and then they go on the road.

  • Wednesday, December 18 - Leafs in Dallas
  • Thursday, December 19 - roster freeze goes into affect at midnight that evening
  • Friday, December 20 - Leafs in Buffalo
  • Saturday, December 21 - Leafs at home to the Islanders
  • Sunday, December 22 - day off
  • Monday, December 23 - at home to the Jets, and the holiday break begins after this game
  • Friday, December 27 - Leafs in Detroit, and the freeze is lifted after this game
  • Saturday, December 28 - at home to Washington (Merry Christmas, Leafs, have a back-to-back)

This is not much of a hassle for the Leafs – knock wood – because they aren't in a cap crunch right now due to some injuries, and they can likely create and maintain a static roster for the freeze period.

The Marlies have some road games in this period, but not far away, so there should be no major issues for either team.

Trades

The freeze includes a halt on trades, so there is a sharpening of minds that happens in mid-December as GMs need to make decisions. This is usually when trades start up in a season, but this year has been unusual for a fairly constant pace of change. AHL rebalancing trades begin around now as well.

LTIR

The big exception to the freeze rules is players coming off LTIR because they are now healthy. This could apply to David Kämpf this season. If a team needs to activate an LTIR player, they are allowed to make the moves necessary to be cap compliant. So should that occur, the Leafs can send a forward to the AHL to make space. However, to get under the 23-man limit, they have to follow the freeze rules, making the timing of this move important to consider.

And that's the freeze for this year.

This Is How It Works