The NHL's upcoming foray back into international hockey will leave a big blank space right in the middle of February's schedule.

With no regular-season games due to be played from Feb. 10 to 21 while the 4 Nations Face-Off is contested in Montreal and Boston, a huge majority of the league's players, coaches and executives can look forward to a rare chance to step back and catch their breath amid the steady drumbeat of a busy campaign.

While no one will be hanging a "Gone Fishing" sign the way they might during the dead quiet of August, it's unlikely there will be much official team business conducted in that window for a variety of reasons.

This will be the NHL's first extended (and scheduled) in-season break since February 2014, when it paused 16 days for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Here's an explainer on what is and isn't permitted under league rules while the 4 Nations Face-Off is being played.

Unlike the Christmas holiday period, where the NHL severely limits roster movement with an eight-day freeze on waivers, trades and loans, there will be no restrictions placed on what the 32 teams can do during the February break.

Each of them will have to remain cap-compliant in that window and will continue to be subject to daily cap calculations based on their active roster.

However, provided they operate within those parameters, they're free to move players around even while those players are vacationing in Mexico or potentially representing the United States, Canada, Sweden or Finland in the 4 Nations tournament.

That means a player can be subjected to waivers or assigned to the AHL or even dealt to another team while the NHL is on international hiatus.

There is nothing in the league rules to prevent it from happening. However, in speaking with multiple team executives, the general expectation seems to be that any moves discussed during the 4 Nations break aren't likely to be officially consummated until after the tournament is over.

For starters, this is an important event being co-run by the NHL and NHL Players' Association, and no one will be looking to take any spotlight away from the first competition of its kind in more than eight years.

Beyond that, there's not really any apparent urgency to add a player while your team is neither practicing nor playing, especially since that addition would immediately affect your cap sheet. Typically, most deadline buyers are teams trying to tango under the salary cap ceiling by accruing as much space as possible for as long as possible before pulling the trigger on a move.

It seems reasonable to expect the 4 Nations break to allow NHL front offices to take stock of where they stand and begin zeroing in on their approach to the trade deadline. That represents an ideal time to gain a detailed understanding of the market at large and start getting your ducks in a row.

There should be plenty of fireworks when the regular season resumes with less than two weeks to go before the 3 p.m. ET deadline on March 7.

That represents a narrow window to squeeze in an avalanche of transactions league-wide.

Another trend to keep an eye on during the 4 Nations break is teams assigning young or waiver-exempt players to their AHL affiliates.

That league will continue operating with a typical schedule right through February. As a result, NHL teams will get the opportunity to find more minutes for some guys on the farm or they'll simply take advantage of the chance to save 12 days of cap accrual by shifting players off their roster during the break.

Some of these transactions may only end up being conducted on paper.

League rules dictate that a player assigned to the AHL any time after 11:59 p.m. local time on the date of the NHL team's final game before the break isn't "obligated to report to the team to which he has been loaned" until after the break formally ends.

In other words, a player can't be summoned back from vacation in the event he gets loaned during the international window. He would have to be sent down before the break was formally underway to be required to actually report to the AHL team.

The 600-plus NHL players who aren't participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off are required to punch the clock again starting Feb. 18.

Just like when teams have returned from the All-Star Weekend or a bye week in prior seasons, practices that first day back can't be scheduled before 2 p.m. local time. That allows some extra time for those traveling back from outside their own market to return home.

Per the terms of the NHL's 2020 Memorandum of Understanding, there's some leeway in the event of an explained absence: "Players shall be excused from the first post-Break practice if unforeseen travel delays or other compelling circumstances prevent them from participating," it reads.

If desired, NHL teams will have the runway necessary to hold as many as four practices to get back up to speed before the sprint to the end of the regular season officially begins.

There are 14 games scheduled league-wide on Saturday, Feb. 22 -- two days after the 4 Nations champion is due to be crowned at TD Garden.

Still have questions about the tournament's rules or anything else NHL or hockey? Post them here, and we'll get to a selection in our next "Ask CJ" mailbag.