The NHL Trade Deadline is one of the high points of the hockey fan's calendar, as every news outlet is scanned for the latest updates on which players are moving from town to town. The Olympic break has only heightened the anticipation, as teams only have until Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time to complete the trades that will ensure (or doom?) their playoff hopes.

But let's face it, keeping up with what folks are saying on message boards, Twitter, and Facebook can be time-consuming and wildly misleading.

So follow after the jump for the Automatic NHL Trade Rumor Generator...

The idea here (used to great success last season), is to take players who are headed to Unrestricted Free Agency, mostly on teams that are out of the playoff chase, and generate random "rumors" which have them heading to teams that are in playoff contention, along with an extra rumor that has them staying put. Last season when I performed this exercise, I was nearly twice as accurate as the infamous Eklund.

So why pay $20 for his hand-crafted BS, when you can access precision-engineered, high-tech BS right here for free?

This Google Spreadsheet-driven tool automatically refreshes every few minutes, so feel free to check back often, and if you see a trade rumor you like, record it for posterity in the comments below!

For more "nuanced" coverage of the NHL Trade Deadline, head over to SB Nation's hub, which gathers together analysis from around the community of hockey blogs here. It's going to be a fun-filled week, so strap yourself in!