Beyond Kane, much uncertainty ahead of NHL trade deadline

The NHL’S top contenders did not wait until the last minute to do their shopping before the trade deadline.

League-leading Boston got bigger and tougher by adding Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway. Toronto got defensive by trading for Ryan O’reilly. The Rangers answered their New Yorkrival Islanders’ move for Bo Horvat by acquiring Vladimir Tarasenko — and they’re not done yet.

A handful of big moves already have been made around the league, including a couple Sunday, and many more are expected before the trade deadline Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern. Patrick Kane going from Chicago to the Rangers is the most predictable deal on the docket, and yet plenty of uncertainty remains about what else will shake out.

“I am certainly not going to predict where the market goes next,”bruins GM Don Sweeney said last week after making what could be his first big trade or his only big one.“that’s for all teams, all 32 teams, to continue to discuss and those discussions will continue.”

Discussions led St. Louis to trade Ivan Barbashev to Vegas for prospect Zach Dean, a first-round draft pick in 2021. Other talks culminated in a swap of forwards between Dallas and Montreal, with the Central Division-leading Stars landing four-time 20-goal scorer Evgenii Dadonov. More are ongoing around Kane, San Jose’s Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson, Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun, Philadelphia’s James van Riemsdyk and Washington’s handful of pending free agents as the Capitals went from buyers to sellers. Meier and Chychrun are the top players expected to move by Friday.