The NHL trade deadline showed that the race to succeed the Florida Panthers as Stanley Cup champions after they went back to back and fell short this season is wide open.
The Colorado Avalanche are rightfully the betting favorites, 5-2 on BetMGM Sportsbook, since they have been atop the league since October. Reacquiring center Nazem Kadri, who was part of their 2022 title run, while also shoring up forward and defensive depth only better positioned them for a deep playoff run.
But plenty of other contenders made trades to take a shot at hoisting hockey’s hallowed trophy, including the Central Division rival Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. The Eastern Conference-favorite Tampa Bay Lightning made a relatively minor addition but one that could help take them back to the final.
“There’s a lot of good hockey teams in the National Hockey League, and only one team is going to be happy at the end of it,” Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said. “We understand that has to happen on the ice. You can talk about it — the deadline, who wins this? Who wins that? None of it matters. It’s what happens on the ice.”
Colorado got Kadri from Calgary, at a reduced price because the Flames retained 20% of his $7 million salary, for forward Victor Olofsson, the rights to unsigned pick Max Curran, a conditional 2028 first-round pick and conditional 2027 second-rounder. The Avalanche even got a fourth-rounder with Kadri.
Dallas earlier this week fortified its defense by acquiring 6-foot-8 Tyler Myers from Vancouver, and filled a need up front by getting Michael Bunting from Nashville.
Minnesota's blockbuster move came back in December, winning the sweepstakes for Quinn Hughes. This week, Wild focused on adding depth with center Michael McCarron, forward Bobby Brink and defenseman Jeff Petry.
Tampa Bay got Corey Perry from Los Angeles, adding a winger with edge to a group brimming with talent. Carolina had skill and speed but lacked obvious toughness, so the Hurricanes sent a late, conditional draft pick to Philadelphia for modern-day enforcer Nicolas Deslauriers.
Vegas did its big-game shopping in January by landing defenseman Rasmus Andersson from Calgary. The Golden Knights would never bypass a deadline, though, and GM Kelly McCrimmon got shutdown center Nic Dowd from Washington.
Edmonton, which has made consecutive trips to the final and lost to Florida each time, made moves to try to keep the puck out of its own net. The Oilers paid a hefty price for forwards Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach and got defenseman Connor Murphy in a separate deal with Chicago.
The Buffalo Sabres came close to landing St. Louis forward Robert Thomas, in his prime at 26 and signed through 2031. They got even closer to adding big defenseman Colton Parayko, with a deal worked out with the Blues for him.
Neither happened.
“I don’t comment on unfinished business,” GM Jarmo Kekalainen said.
Parayko invoked his no-trade clause, nixing the trade. Kekalainen’s only regret in the trade falling through was how it might be perceived as a knock on Buffalo or the team, which is in position to snap an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.
“Buffalo is a great city,” said Kekalainen, who arrived in Buffalo as a senior adviser in June and was promoted to GM when Kevyn Adams was fired in mid-December. “I’ve loved every second of it. We have a great hockey team that’s winning games and the fun atmosphere, electric building and I would think that our players are loving it here.”
The New York Rangers also held on to U.S. gold medal-winning center Vincent Trocheck, and Philadelphia did not trade Rasmus Ristolainen, who played defense at the Olympics for Finland. Those teams set asking prices high, and it was a seller's market in general.
“Sometimes, the ask for some of the elite players that were available, it wasn’t even a question that we’d do that as an organization because a year from now, it just wouldn’t make the organization any better,” Utah GM Bill Armstrong said.
Nick Foligno couldn’t help but think of his late mother, Janis, upon being traded to Minnesota on Friday to team up with his brother, Marcus, calling it a humbling move.
“Honestly, it feels like our mom’s got a little something to do with that, smiling down on us today," Foligno said, referring to their mother who died of breast cancer in 2009. "It’s something I don’t take for granted.”
While Nick and Marcus were reunited, another NHL brother tandem was involved in separate trades.
Luke Schenn went first, sent from Winnipeg to Buffalo early Friday morning. Younger brother Brayden went next, from St. Louis to the New York Islanders. Don't worry, they've gotten to experience what the Folignos are now: the Schenns played together with the Flyers for 3 1/2 seasons from 2012-16.
AP Sports Writers Pat Graham, Aaron Beard and Dan Gelston and AP freelance writer Denis Gorman contributed to this report.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
FILE - Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Corey Perry (10) against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, April 24, 2023, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
FILE - Colorado Avalanche center Nazem Kadri (91) lifts the Stanley Cup after the team defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, June 26, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide will march in May Day rallies Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
The day is a public holiday in many countries, and demonstrations, some of which have turned violent in the past, are expected in many of the world's major cities.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
In the United States, activists opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.
Here’s what to know about May Day.
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East are expected to be a key theme in Friday's rallies.
In the Philippines' capital of Manila, protest organizers said they expect big crowds of workers. “There will be a louder call for higher wages and economic relief because of the unprecedented spikes in fuel prices,” Renato Reyes, a leader of the left-wing political group Bayan, told The Associated Press.
“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.
In Indonesia, labor unions have warned against worsening economic pressures at home. “Workers are already living paycheck to paycheck,” said Said Iqbal, president of the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation.
In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.
“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.
Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.
Workers' unions traditionally use May Day to rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues.
Protests are planned from Seoul, Jakarta and Istanbul to most European Union capitals and cities across the United States.
In France, unions called for demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,” linking workers’ daily concerns to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labor abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda.”
In Portugal, proposed labor law changes by the center-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” workers' unions said in a joint statement.
Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work to people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
Activists and labor unions are organizing street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would’ve made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
May Day is now observed in much of the world from Europe to Latin America, Africa and Asia.
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AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
