It’s the most important day of the NHL regular season. Teams have until 3:00 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday to make trades, and make trades they will. Dozens of them. The best teams in the League are trying to get better; the worst are trying to cut costs and acquire some prospects for the future. And if you’re one of the many teams in between? It could be years before you escape the middle class and drink from the Stanley Cup.

It used to be worse. Before the latest collective bargaining agreement was signed after the 2005-05 lockout, the trade deadline was 26 days before the end of the regular season. The League’s richest teams though nothing of