On this post we’ll keep you updated on all the latest player movement around the NHL as the trade deadline approaches. With only two-plus days to make deals before the mid-afternoon deadline on Wednesday, March 3, teams could be burning out their phone’s batteries in the coming days.

Here’s what’s officially gone down:

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired defenseman Jordan Leopold from the Florida Panthers for a 2010 2nd round draft pick. Leopold, 29, has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists), is -7 and is averaging 22:26 on the ice  in 61 games this year. His name had been linked to a number of trade scenarios, including a trade that would send goalie Tomas Vokoun to the Blackhawks. He is, however, headed to Pittsburgh.

Center Matt Stajan has agreed to terms with Calgary Flames on four-year extension worth about $3.5 million per year. He is going to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Stajan was acquired before the Olympics in the trade sending Dion Phaneuf to Toronto.

The St. Louis Blues’ AHL affiliate traded goaltender Hannu Toivonen and defenseman Danny Richmond to the Chicago Blackhawks‘ Rockford affiliate for goaltender Joe Fallon. All players will remain in the AHL. Fallon was recently recalled by the Blackhawks when Antti Niemi had the flu, but did not appear in any game action. Richmond, 25, has 15 assists, 16 points and 135 penalty minutes in 54 games in Peoria. He is a Buffalo Grove, IL native who was part of the Hawks’ organization between 2005-08.

The Dallas Stars signed forward Steve Ott to a four-year extension with $2.95 million per season. Ott, 27, has 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) and is -13 with 100 PIM in 51 games this season. Of the 23 players in the NHL with 100+ PIM, Ott is only one of three who have scored more than 10 goals.

The Edmonton Oilers traded defenseman Denis Grebeshkov, 26, to the Nashville Predators for a 2010 2nd round draft pick. Grebeshkov has 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) and is -16 in 47 games this season. The Preds have been rumored to be shopping D Dan Hamhuis; Grebeshkov might be his replacement.

The Atlanta Thrashers acquired forward Evgeny Artyukhin from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for minor league defenseman Nathan Oystrick and a conditional draft pick in 2011. Artyukhin, 26, is a UFA after this season and adds size at forward that Atlanta GM Don Waddell has openly coveted.

On Tuesday morning, the Atlanta Thrashers agreed to an NHL contract with defenseman Chris Chelios. The Atlanta Thrashers were founded in 1999; Chelios was a rookie in the NHL in 1983-84. At 48-years-old, Chelios brings… experience… to Atlanta.

The Minnesota Wild are expected to announce a contract extension with defenseman Marek Zidlicky that’s good for three years at $4 million per season. Zidlicky, 33, has 36 points (five goals, 31 assists) and is -2 in 60 games this season.

The Anaheim Ducks acquired a 4th-round pick in either 2010/2011 from the Boston Bruins in exchange for defenseman Steven Kampfer, who is currently playing at the University of Michigan. Again, not a major deal for either team, but it moves another defenseman to Boston’s organizational depth that could make another deal (or two) possible.

The New York Islanders traded defenseman Andy Sutton to the Ottawa Senators for a 2nd round pick (that was acquired from the San Jose Sharks). Sutton was scratched from the Islanders’ game on Tuesday night against Chicago.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made the first major deal at the deadline, adding left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky from Toronto for prospect Luca Caputi and veteran Martin Skoula. Skoula was included in the deal to create enough cap space in Pittsburgh for Ponikarovsky to clear. Caputi, also a left wing, was the third-ranked prospect in the Pittsburgh system.

The St. Louis Blues have acquired right wing Matt D’Agostini from Montreal for forward prospect Aaron Palushaj. D’Agostini, 23, has two goals, two assists and is -12 in 40 games for the Canadians this year. Palushaj, 20, was the third-ranked prospect in the St. Louis organization.

The Boston Bruins have sent defenseman Derek Morris to the Phoenix Coyotes for a 4th round pick in the 2011 draft. Morris, 31, has three goals and 22 assists, is averaging exactly 22 minutes per game, and is -2 this season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will never see Martin Skoula in uniform. Skoula, who was acquired as part of the Ponikarovski trade on Tuesday night, is headed to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday morning. Toronto will receive a 5th round pick in the 2010 draft.

The Boston Bruins acquired defenseman Denis Seidenberg and defenseman prospect Matt Bartkowski from Florida for forwards Craig Weller and Byron Bitz and a 2nd round pick. Seidenberg will likely replace Derek Morris in Boston’s rotation.

The Anaheim Ducks have acquired defenseman Aaron Ward from the Carolina Hurricanes for goalie Justin Pogge and a 4th round pick. The Ducks send Nick Boynton to Chicago on Tuesday, but Ward figures to factor into Anaheim’s top-four.

The Edmonton Oilers claimed forward Ryan Jones off waivers from the Nashville Predators. Jones, 25, has seven goals and four assists in 41 games this season for Nashville.

The Washington Capitals acquired forward Scott Walker from the Carolina Hurricanes for a 7th round pick. The Capitals have been trying to add depth to their blue line for some time, and the veteran Walker accomplishes that goal at a relatively small price.

The St. Louis Blues have dealt center Jan Stastny to the Vancouver Canucks for Cedric Labrie. Stastny, 27, has one goal in just four games for the Blues this season. How, and where, he’ll fit with Vancouver is to be determined.

The Colorado Avalanche have dealt Wojtek Wolski to the Phoenix Coyotes for Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter. Wolski, 24, has 17 goals and 30 assists and is +15 in 61 games this season. Mueller, 21, has four goals and 13 assists in 54 games this season, and will be a restricted free agent after the season.

The Vancouer Canucks have traded defenseman Mathieu Schneider to the Phoenix Coyotes for Sean Zimmerman and a 6th round pick. Schneider, 40, has five points in 17 games for the Canucks this season and is likely a rental to fill their defense.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have dealt center Jeff Halpern to the Los Angeles Kings for Teddy Purcell and a 3rd round pick. Halpern, 33, has nine goals and eight assists in 51 games for the Lightning this year and, more importantly, is an unrestricted free agent after the season. Purcell, 24, has three goals and three assists in 41 games this year.

The Washington Capitals have acquired center Eric Belanger from the Minnesota Wild for a 2nd round pick. Belanger, 32, has 13 goals and 22 assists in 60 games in Minnesota this season. How he impacts the lines in Washington will be an evolving situation.

The Anaheim Ducks have added backup netminder Curtis McElhinney from the Calgary Flames for Vesa Toskala. Before the Olympics, the Ducks signed Jonas Hiller to an extension and dealt Jean-Sebastian Giguere to Toronto. Toskala has already taken away Miika Kiprusoff’s job once in his career…

The Buffalo Sabres have added forward Raffi Torres to play in front of Ryan Miller down the stretch. Torres, 28, has 19 goals and 12 assists in 60 games this season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus will receive Nathan Paetcsh and 2nd round pick.

The Sabres, after adding Torres, have traded Clarke MacArthur to the Atlanta Thrashers. MacArthur, 24, has 13 goals and 13 assists and is -14 in 60 games so far this season. His spot in Buffalo will be filled by Torres, and he’ll try to fill the void left by Ilya Kovalchuck in Atlanta.

The Washington Capitals added more defense, trading for Milan Jurcina. Jurcina, 26, has one goal and six assists this season in 44 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Caps have added both Jurcina and Walker now before the deadline.

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the deadline, sending forward Lee Stempniak to the Phoenix Coyotes. Stempniak, 27, had 14 goals and 16 assists, and was -10 in 60 games for Toronto this year. Toronto acquired 4th and 7th round picks.

Carolina traded Joe Corvo to the Washington Capitals for a 2nd round pick, prospect and Brian Pothier. Corvo is the second defenseman added to the mix for the Caps in one day. He had four goals and eight assists in 34 games for Carolina.

The Vancouver Canucks acquired defenseman Andrew Alberts. Alberts, 28, has two goals and eight assists in 62 games this season in Carolina. He will replace Mathieu Schneider in the Canucks’ blue line rotation. Carolina received a 3rd round pick for Alberts.

Los Angeles acquired Fredrik Modin from Columbus. Modin, 35, had two goals and four assists and was -3 in 24 games for the Blue Jackets this season. This was the second deal for the Kings at the deadline, while Columbus unloaded a number of players.

The Anaheim Ducks acquired Joey MacDonald from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 7th round pick. MacDonald, 30, was a reserve in Toronto who only played in six games for the Leafs this season. The Ducks added a number of netminders around the deadlines, both before and now after the Olympics, this year.

The Florida Panthers acquired defenseman Mathieu Roy for prospect Matt Rust. Roy, 26, had ten assists in 31 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets this season, and will likely replace Denis Seidenberg in the Panthers’ rotation.

The Anaheim Ducks sent Ryan Whitney to Edmonton for Lubomir Visnovsky. Visnovsky, 33, had 1o goals and 22 assists in 57 games for the Oilers this year. Whitney, 27, had four goals and 24 assists in 62 games in Anaheim this season.

The Nashville Predators acquired center Dustin Boyd from the Calgary Flames for a 4th round pick. Boyd, 24, had eight goals and 11 assists in 61 games for the Flames this season.

According to coach Joel Quenneville after practice on Wednesday, Antti Niemi will start in goal in Boston on Thursday night. He also indicated that Cam Barker is still a day-to-day situation with his “upper body injury.”

In his first NHL season, Niemi has been exceptional in 13 games. He’s allowing only 1.81 goals per game with a stellar .926 save percentage. Niemi was in goal when Boston visited the United Center on Dec. 18 and it was far from his best performance, though. He allowed four goals on 29 shots that night as the Hawks needed a shoot out to beat the Bruins 5-4. On the other side of the ice that night, US Olympian Tim Thomas was incredible, stopping 40 of 44 shots before losing in the shootout.

Boston's Tim Thomas watches Patrick Kane's game winner go in... between his legs.

With Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman in attendance, as part of his duties as both the head of Canada’s Olympic Hockey program and a scout for the Detroit Red Wings, the Blackhawks battled for three physical periods against a Boston team that was every bit their equal. When the dust had settled, a game that was described by some as a potential preview to the Stanley Cup Finals lived up to the hype on Friday night as the Blackhawks defeated the Boston Bruins in a shootout.

Leading 1-0 early in the second period, the Bruins kicked the puck away from the right side boards out in front of the net where Kris Versteeg had an easy one-on-one with goalie Tim Thomas that he put home. The goal was unassisted… by a Blackhawks player.

It was Versteeg’s 10th goal of the season.

Yzerman was specifically watching captain Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, and he wasn’t disappointed. Keith and Seabrook both had an assist when Sharp scored a goal that put the Hawks ahead 2-1 in the second period, putting back a long rebound off a Seabrook blast. Seabrook led the team with five hits as the duo played big minutes, as they always do, anchoring the blue line for Joel Quenneville.

The goal was Sharp’s 10th of the season.

Boston tied the game on a Daniel Paille goal eight minutes after Sharp put the Hawks ahead, but Boston’s lead didn’t last long. With less than 30 seconds left in the second period, Jonathan Toews won a battle for the puck in traffic right in front of Thomas and put it into the back of the net.

It was, oddly enough, Toews’ 10th goal of the season as well.

Kaner celebrates ending a great game.

The third period followed the flow of action from the second, with the Bruins tying the game at three on Johnny Boychuk’s goal six minutes into the frame. However, less than two minutes later, Andrew Ladd got a piece of a Brian Campbell missile and put the puck past Thomas to give the Blackhawks the 4-3 lead. It was Ladd’s fifth goal of the season; there weren’t any more Hawks with nine that could have scored? Really?

This lead last ten minutes until David Krejci scored his second goal of the game. Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi were both credited with two assists on the night for Boston, while Paille had a goal and an assist. None of these Bruins scored in the final two minutes of regulation or the overtime period, but none of the Hawks could either and the game went to the shootout.

Despite allowing four goals and blowing the Hawks’ stretch of over 150 minutes without allowing a goal, Antti Niemi was stellar in the shootout. Bergeron and Blake Wheeler were no match for Niemi in Boston’s two shots, and that’s all the Hawks needed. Toews started the shootout with a great puck handling display, and then Patrick Kane embarrassed Thomas by teasing him onto his heels until the Bruins’ netminder essentially skated backwards into the net with the game winning goal sliding between his legs.

After the game, Boston coach Claude Julien said “You need a perfect game to beat the Blackhawks.” This high praise came from a coach who’s team played a great game in front of the largest United Center crowd of the season and certainly earned the respect of the Blackhawks’ fans.

Also earning a great deal of respect on Friday night was Jordan Hendry. The little used defenseman, who has dressed as a forward in the last two games in which he’s played, was pressed into action because Niklas Hjalmarsson was sick. Quenneville kept Brent Sopel and Cam Barker together and put Hendry with Campbell, and Hendry responded with a solid effort. Hendry had only played more than eight minutes once since Oct. 26, but stepped up and played 21:42 on Friday night. He was credited with an assist and was +1 on the night.

Another roster move of note, it was Ben Eager and not Tomas Kopecky that was replaced by Bryan Bickell on Friday night. The scratch of Eager was announced as the Hawks took the ice for warmups just before the game, and no health-related issues were cited. Kopecky, who had been scratched once already this week in favor of Hendry, had the least amount of ice time (6:48) of any Hawks’ player on Friday night.

Former Boston and Chicago Sox catcher Carlton Fisk dropped the puck Friday night.

December begins with the Chicago Blackhawks in first place in the Central Division. Life is good.

After a spectacular November that saw the team handle most, if not all, of the Western Conference powers both at home and on the road, the Hawks come on in December for a month highlighted by games against some of the top talent from the Eastern Conference. Thankfully for the fans, though, most of December is played in Chicago.

The fun begins on December 5, when the Hawks make their lone trip to the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. This game could not only be a showcase of some of the best young players in the NHL, but might be a trendy pick to serve as a 2010 Stanley Cup Finals preview. After the Pittsburgh trip, the Hawks return home for New York Rangers before heading to Buffalo to take on the red-hot Sabres on December 11.

This stretch of three games could serve as a good gauge of how the Blackhawks stack up against the stronger teams in the East. But the schedule doesn’t get easy after just that one week.

After the Sabres game, the Hawks have a five-game homestand during which Original Six foes Boston and Detroit come to the United Center. It will be the only trip for the Bruins to Chicago this year, and the first time the Hawks will face the Red Wings since their third game of the season; that loss also happened to be the Wings home opener and the first game either team had played on American soil this season.

Marian Hossa will play the last two teams with whom he advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in Pittsburgh and Detroit. The Red Wings should be getting some of their injured players back during December, but the losses on their roster have kept them from playing consistent hockey this year.

Following the Red Wings could be a dangerous game for the Blackhawks. The final game of the homestand is against the San Jose Sharks… the same Sharks that have lost both games against the Hawks this year and who got their doors blown out in their building during the Circus Trip. If there’s one team on the December schedule that has a score to settle, it’s the Sharks.

The Hawks will leave town for a couple tough games after facing the Sharks, travelling to Detroit and Nashville, before returning home for Nashville again.

The Predators started the season in a funk but have come on strong lately and fall in a couple spots on the December schedule that could present an opportunity for a good team to take advantage of a team playing a lot of games against premier Eastern Conference teams. The back-to-back home and home series on the two days immediately following Christmas could be a great test for both teams.

The final day of 2009 will also present a potential Finals preview when the New Jersey Devils come to Chicago. It will be the first time John Madden faces his former team, and will absolutely serve as a test of the potent Hawks offense against Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur. Both teams are elite defensively, so that could be a bell ringer to end a special calendar year in the history of the Blackhawks.

In two separate pieces of “breaking” news, two Eastern Conference leaders will be without star players for the next four to six weeks.

The Boston Bruins announced that center Marc Savard, who has led Boston in scoring each of the last three seasons, has been lost to a broken foot. Savard already had tallied seven points on the young season, again leading Boston’s offense.

Meanwhile, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins lost blue line All Star Sergei Gonchar to a broken wrist Tuesday night. The 35-year old already had eight points on the young season for Pittsburgh.

Savard and Gonchar join a list of All Stars that will be missing a significant amount of time early this season. Vancouver is without Daniel Sedin and Sami Salo, Detroit is without Johan Franzen, Chicago hasn’t seen anything yet from Marian Hossa, Columbus is without Jan Hejda, and Edmonton is without Sheldon Souray.