The NHL’s trade deadline looms next Wednesday, which means the drive to the playoffs has officially begun. In this coming week, teams will have one last chance to shuffle their rosters and try to reposition themselves for a long Stanley Cup playoffs run… Which really isn’t all that different from preparing for a selling season on eBay!

At the beginning of October, we reported that the top-three-selling NHL teams on eBay were Detroit, Pittsburgh and Montreal, followed by Buffalo and then the rest of the league’s “Original 6″ teams (Chicago, Toronto, NY Rangers, Boston). So what’s changed since then? Well, not a whole lot. Have a look at our NHL index here, or its companion widget below:

Perhaps the two most noticeable declines are Montreal and Toronto, both of whom have underperformed on the real ice as well this year. Boston, with a huge lead in the Eastern Conference through 62 games, has seen probably the biggest surge in the eBay standings, followed by Washington and Philadelphia (two more teams having excellent seasons — funny how that works, huh?).

In the Western Conference, the NHL’s best team so far this year, San Jose, still has a ways to go to catch defending champion Detroit in terms of eBay sales — but considering how poised the Sharks look for a long playoff run and possible championship, they might just be the best investment out there!