BOSTON--As they often do during the NHL's trade deadline week, the rumblings from the insiders kicked off Tuesday with rumblings about rumblings. Plenty of respected news-breakers hinted that things were about to pop off, and the eyeball emoji Tweets were running rampant.
While we laypeople can find this type of speculation a bit annoying, there's a reason it plays out like this.
Often, so many potential deals are in the works this time of year that it's anyone's guess which one happens first, and there are collective periods of hot and cold when buyers and sellers are all making their rounds at the same time.