Top 10 NHL trades of 2025: The many faces of Mikko Rantanen

Allow me to overshare a little just to set the stage for the insanity of Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

We were taking a mild risk visiting friends up north. We were pretty sure my eldest daughter throwing up two days earlier was an isolated incident. Probably bad fast food. We felt it was safe to make the trek. But about an hour after arriving, we noticed my youngest daughter wasn’t touching her (favorite) dinner. Uh-oh.

An hour later, she tossed the cookies all over her sleeping bag. It was officially a stomach bug. We hurriedly packed up to head home, not wanting to pass the virus to our friends and their kids. We piled back into our car and hit the dark country road, high beams on.

That’s when the blizzard started.

My night vision already left plenty to be desired, but I had taken the wheel while my wife sat in the back to help our ailing, wailing daughter. I was white-knuckling the drive, trying to concentrate through the blowing snow, when my phone buzzed. It was just within my wife’s reach. She grabbed it.

“You have a text from Steven Ellis. It says someone called…Meeek-oh Rantanen has been traded?”

“What?” I gasped.

“For… Martin… Neck-as?”

“WHAT???”

“Taylor Hall?”

“WHAT?!!”

I fought to keep the car on the road as the snow worsened, my brain scrambled by news of the boldest NHL trade in years.

That’s when my daughter threw up on my wife.

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So, yes, it was QUITE the Friday night. Family chaos aside, kudos were owed to Colorado Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland, Carolina Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky and Chicago Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson for pulling off a wild, bold, hyperventilation-inducing three-team trade. It set the tone for a truly memorable year of jaw-dropping deals…and it wasn’t even the only time a Rantanen trade blew our minds in 2025!

These are my top 10 NHL trades of the calendar year.

Honorable mentions

I couldn’t include the Mitch Marner trade in good conscience. Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs recouped an asset in Nicolas Roy, but the move was more of a Vegas Golden Knights free-agent signing than a true trade in my mind. The Hurricanes’ bold July 1 acquisition of defenseman K’Andre Miller stood out, as did the Ottawa Senators convincing the Buffalo Sabres to take on the injury-prone Josh Norris for Dylan Cozens.

10. Mammoth get serious on playoff push with JJ Peterka

Then-Sabres GM Kevyn Adams felt the threat of an offer sheet looming for RFA Peterka, a 23-year-old first-line left winger coming off a 68-point season, and the Utah Mammoth swooped in. Having improved from 77 to 89 points in their first season after relocating to Salt Lake City, they were determined to level up into a postseason team by adding an impact forward to their top six. They surrendered young right winger Josh Doan and steady defenseman Michael Kesselring to do so. Peterka has almost maintained his Buffalo production, but Doan alone has scored at almost the same pace, so the deal has looked fine for the Sabres so far despite the fact injuries have limited Kesselring to just nine games. Adams made plenty of blunders during his five and a half years running the Sabres, but this deal wasn’t one of them – at least not so far.

9. Islanders finally wake up and begin rebuild by cashing out Brock Nelson

The final years of Lou Lamoriello’s tenure as New York Islanders GM were defined by denial, stubbornly limping along with first-round playoff exits and outright playoff misses. But Lou went out the right way, at last acknowledging the team needed to step backward to go forward. Rather than re-sign pending UFA Nelson for his age-34 season and beyond, the Isles sent him plus William Dufour to the Avalanche, bagging a legitimately promising prospect in center Cal Ritchie, plus a 2026 first-round pick, a 2028 conditional third and Oliver Kylington. It feels like the Isles have since been karmically rewarded for finally understanding the right path; they’re back in the playoff hunt this season. More on that later.

8. Flyers execute perfect buy low on Trevor Zegras

Zegras was a one-way player. His flashiness sometimes irked old-school thinkers. His competitiveness waned game to game. He couldn’t stay healthy. It was thus understandable why the Anaheim Ducks wanted to give up on him. At the same time: he was a 24-year-old center who averaged 56 points per 82 games in his career. The talent hadn’t gone anywhere. The Philadelphia Flyers landed him for a 2025 second-rounder, 2026 fourth-rounder and checking center Ryan Poehling. Zegas is averaging north of a point-per-game in his first season as a Flyer. He qualifies as found money given the modest price GM Danny Briere paid for him.

7. Canucks pick side in dressing room rift, send J.T. Miller to Manhattan

Miller. Elias Pettersson. The feud between the Vancouver Canucks’ top two centers had been building for years, as Miller’s abrasive, loudmouthed leadership clashed with Pettersson’s introverted personality. The discourse over the divided dressing room regularly, embarrassingly spilled into the media. The Canucks decided they’d had enough last winter, sending Miller to the New York Rangers, the team that originally drafted him, along with Erik Brannstrom and Jackson Dorrington for center Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini and a top-13-protected first-round pick in 2025 – which Vancouver dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins days later for defenseman Marcus Pettersson.

So far: maybe a cursed trade? The fear with Chytil was the already-lengthy history of head injuries, one which has sadly gotten longer during his short time as a Canuck and now threatens his career. Miller, meanwhile, was named captain but has stood out for uncaptainly body language multiple times this season and appears to be in decline at 32. This trade makes the list not because it’s worked out but because it was so significant.

6. Islanders throttle up on rebuild, deal Noah Dobson to Habs on Draft Day

Hours before selecting defenseman Matthew Schaefer first overall, new Isles GM Mathieu Darche put a serious stamp on his team. He shipped his No. 1 defenseman Dobson to a rising Montreal Canadiens team, landing two 2025 first-rounders in the process, meaning the Isles picked three times in the top 17. On top of Schaefer, they scored promising scoring winger Victor Eklund and bruising blueliner Kashawn Aitcheson in Round 1. Factoring in the Ritchie acquisition in the Nelson deal, the Isles transformed their prospect pipeline into an elite one in a matter of months.

The Habs, meanwhile, solidified their top four with a reliable, minute-munching puck-mover in Dobson. The Habs’ today got better, and the Isles’ tomorrow did.

5. Panthers steal Brad Marchand and forge path to repeat as Stanley Cup champs

Where’s the Jesse Pinkman “He can’t keep getting away with it!” meme when we need it? Somehow, Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito secured a future Hall of Famer for…a 2027 conditional second-round pick. The Boston Bruins simply had little leverage; Marchand was an injured pending UFA with an eight-team no-trade list. The Panthers capitalized and, once he healed up, Marchand formed a devastatingly dominant third line with Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell. They pancaked their opponents 13-4 at 5-on-5 during Florida’s run to a second consecutive championship. Adding to the sting for Bruins fans: the Panthers re-signed Marchand to a team-friendly deal paying him until he’s approximately 78 years old.

4. Panthers, Blackhawks make win-win trade of the year with Knight-for-Jones swap

I’m a sucker for a mutually beneficial trade that helps one team win a championship and gives the other a foundational piece. Think Joe Nieuwendyk for Jarome Iginla. Needing to deepen their D-corps, the Panthers acquired the maligned former star Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks. It didn’t take long for Jones’ huge wingspan and tremendous skating to make him a major asset once placed in a winning environment. Meanwhile, the Hawks got Spencer Knight, a former elite goaltending prospect trying to find his way back to NHL-caliber play after dealing with some mental health struggles. Jones helped Florida win the Cup and remains a vital cog in their top four, while Knight has busted out this season, looking like one of the NHL’s top goaltenders and realizing his vast potential. Perfect trade. Bravo.

3. Mikko Rantanen Part 2: Hurricanes cut their losses, Stars gain a star

Rantanen seemed like a great get for the Hurricanes. He was supposed to give them the missing superstar scoring talent they’d lacked in so many years of Cup contention under coach Rod Brind’Amour. But the fit was awkward seemingly from the start. Carolina “never felt like home” for Rantanen, as Tulsky put it. When the Canes were no longer confident they could re-sign the pending UFA, they explored a one-for-one swap with the Leafs for Marner, which Marner blocked with his no-movement clause. The next-best idea was to make Rantanen a Dallas Star. Going Carolina’s way: a potential long-term team pillar in scrappy young center Logan Stankoven, plus conditional firsts in 2026 and 2028, a 2026 third and a 2027 third. Before long, Rantanen got back to his big-time scoring ways in Dallas, almost singlehandedly eliminating the Avalanche in Game 7 of the first round. Stankoven hasn’t fully blossomed yet for the Canes, but they did fine on the trade considering the alternative was losing Rantanen for nothing in the summer.

2. Canucks, Wild abruptly end Quinn Hughes saga

This trade is less than a week old, so we obviously can’t evaluate its impact. But there’s no doubting its magnitude. It belongs with the first Rantanen trade and the 2022 Matthew Tkachuk trade as the decade’s largest blockbusters. The speed at which the vibes around Hughes’ future with the Canucks deteriorated was downright jarring, the ball starting to roll downhill once his brother Jack spoke so openly about wanting Quinn as a teammate in September. Jack and younger brother Luke’s New Jersey Devils didn’t get Quinn in the end, however, as the Minnesota Wild and bold GM Bill Guerin delivered the best offer.

For at least the next a year and a half, and longer if Hughes re-signs, the Wild have elevated their ceiling. They’re a two-superstar team now, with Kirill Kaprizov and Hughes serving as their answer to Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in the Central Division. But the Canucks also deserve credit for a strong return in Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick. Seriously: even a week ago, Buium was an untouchable-grade prospect. His ceiling is that of a perennial Norris Trophy candidate. Rossi also plugs Vancouver’s hole at the No. 2 center position. It doesn’t mean the Canucks win a Hughes trade, but they got the best haul possible for him on paper at least.

1. Mikko Rantanen Part 1: The three-team blockbuster

It’s still mind-boggling from the Avs’ perspective that the trade even happened. Was “Don’t make more than MacKinnon” truly a sticking point despite the context that Rantanen was signing years later with the salary cap rising? The haggling cost Colorado one of its best all-time players and a future Hall of Famer, with the Blackhawks sliding in to land a third-round pick in exchange for retaining half Rantanen’s cap hit for Carolina. Despite the pain of losing Rantanen, the nifty Martin Necas was a good get for Colorado and still looks very much at home on MacKinnon’s right wing, with Jack Drury, another piece of the deal, filling a serviceable checking role. The Canes’ return across the two Rantanen deals ended up being Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven, Nils Juntorp and the aforementioned pile of first- and third-round picks – for Necas and Drury, essentially. And the Avs never expected they’d have Rantanen back in their own division as an opponent six weeks later – and as their daddy in the postseason. We’ll likely be tracking the trade tree from this epic deal for years to come.

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