Insider speculates NHL trade market heat up before Four Nations Face-Off as teams fear injury risk

The Four Nations Face-Off tournament is under four weeks away from the opening game of Team Canada versus Team Sweden on February 12th. The tournament runs until Feb. 20. That leaves teams just two weeks before the March 7th NHL trade deadline.

In Friday's edition of "32 Thoughts: The Podcast," NHL insider Elliotte Friedman shared how he thinks teams may approach making trades around the Four Nations Face-Off tournament.

"What's going to be interesting is the Four Nations ends February 20, and it's going to be two weeks to the trade deadline," Friedman said (1:30:00 onwards). "I wonder how many teams are going to try to do something even before that happens. Remember the 2014 Olympics were Canada won gold, John broke his leg, missed the rest of the year. For the Islanders, there are teams who are thinking about that.

"That's going to be hard hockey, it's going to be great hockey. Those teams, those players, are going to go at each other hard. If there's anybody on any of those rosters who might get dealt, I think their teams are going to consider trading them beforehand, because you don't want to risk the injury."

Several players that are playing in the Four Nations Face-Off could be traded

Quite a few players are playing in the Four Nations Face-Off tournament who could be traded ahead of the deadline. TSN released its patented "Trade Bait Board" one week ago and there were multiple names who will be representing their country in February.

Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Nelson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund and Gustav Nyquist were all listed in the top 30 players to be traded. Miller, Nelson, and Kreider will represent Team USA, Granlund and Ristolainen Team Finland, and Pettersson and Nyquist Team Sweden.

Elliotte Friedman's comments on general managers potentially looking to trade these players prior to the tournament could lead to a chaotic next three weeks leading up to the start of the Four Nations Face-Off.

The inaugural year of the best-on-best showcase will begin with Canada taking on Sweden on February 12. The puck drops at 8 p.m. EST at the Bell Centre in Montreal.