from Evan Sporer of The Sporting News,

There are generally two days reserved on the NHL's calendar that forecast a busier-than-normal news cycle and storms with combustible elements ripe to send media folks into a frenzy. The first comes on trade deadline day, which usually falls in late February or early March. The second comes July 1, the first day free agents can begin signing with new teams. Those two stamps on the timeline call for cleared calendars, charged cell phones and the general expectation of being busy....

But toward the end of June 2016, something unexpected happened on multiple layers. On June 29, nestled between when the NHL Draft ended (June 25) and the start of free agency, time didn't stop for 23 minutes, but accelerated at a pace unlike the hockey world had seen before, jumping straight into hyper-speed and altering the landscape of the NHL.

In less than the actual real time it takes to play a single period of hockey, three transactions went down. The enormity of the moves combined like a wall of warm, moist air colliding with another wall of cool, dry air. It formed a tornado that caught the NHL community completely off guard, and sent its reporters — and Hockey Twitter — into an absolute scramble.

At 3:34 p.m. ET, the Devils acquired forward Taylor Hall from the Oilers for defenseman Adam Larsson. At 3:51 p.m., the Predators acquired defenseman P.K. Subban from the Canadiens for defenseman Shea Weber. And finally, at 3:57 p.m., the Lightning re-signed forward Steven Stamkos — set to become the biggest free agent in the NHL's salary cap era just two days later — to an eight-year, $68 million extension.

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