Winners and Losers from the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline

The 2025 NHL trade deadline is now officially behind us.

The centerpiece of last month's blockbuster became the centerpiece of deadline-day's blockbuster, as the Carolina Hurricanes flipped Mikko Rantanen to the Dallas Stars.

The Bruins said goodbye to captain and franchise cornerstone Brad Marchand after nearly two decades of heart, licking and nose-face-killing. The Oilers? Nope, they didn’t sniff out the goalie market. Meanwhile, three of their biggest in-conference opponents got a lot better.

There weren’t a ton of moves, but those that did happen could shake up this year's Stanley Cup race. Let’s take a look at the early winners and losers of this year’s deadline.

Winners: Dallas Stars

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Stars GM Jim Nill is ahead of the curve year after year, and he once again proved that he doesn’t just abide by the market. He often decides what the market is for himself.

If last year’s deadline was a masterclass in minor tweaks, this year’s deadline was a masterclass in going all-in. Before today, the Stars acquired Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci from the San Jose Sharks for a first-round pick and a conditional third-rounder in the 2025 NHL draft. When 100-point player Mikko Rantanen became available, Nill acquired him for two first-rounders, two third-rounders and Logan Stankoven and then signed him to a surprisingly reasonable extension. 

One of the best parts of the deal was that he didn’t give up budding star center Wyatt Johnston. Instead, he signed Johnston to a five-year extension with an $8.4 million annual cap hit. 

Surrendering three first-rounders isn’t always the right move, but the Stars are in the midst of their contention window. With this blend of up-and-comers and veterans, this was the perfect time to do it.

They were smart about their picks and prospects for years, and they capitalized on that patience in a huge payoff at this year's trade deadline. 

Losers: Carolina Hurricanes

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You could argue that at the end of the day, the Hurricanes ended up with two first-round picks, two third-round picks and Logan Stankoven for Martin Necas and Jack Drury. That would’ve been huge in 2023.

Unfortunately, I’m living in reality in 2025. And in reality, Necas is having the season of a lifetime, and the Hurricanes had 100-point player Mikko Rantanen to show for it for about six weeks.

It’s good that the Canes salvaged two first-rounders and a great young player instead of letting Rantanen walk for nothing, but I want to see them field the best possible team they can in the midst of their Cup window. Although Rantanen wasn’t playing up to his usual standard with the Canes, the best possible Canes roster would include him.

Carolina will face a lot of questions now, including: Why trade for Rantanen if you were going to flip him if he didn’t sign an extension, especially after he didn’t extend with the Avalanche to begin with? Let’s start there.

Winner: Mikko Rantanen

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The Rantanen situation has been as whirlwindy as it gets, so who knows how he's feeling at this exact moment in time. It’ll be fascinating to hear what he has to say about the whole ordeal. But as of today, he’s on a top Cup contender, and he’ll be making $12 million each year for the next eight years. 

We’re going to go ahead and declare him a winner.

To recap: Less than two months ago, Rantanen was traded in a shocking blockbuster for the first time in his career. The pending UFA’s negotiations with his lifelong team went south ahead of next season’s huge salary-cap increase. So Rantanen found himself on a new team, in a new place for the first time in his career, and the Hurricanes wanted to sign him to an extension ahead of the trade deadline. He declined, so the Hurricanes decided to shop him.

Now he has an eight-year extension with a $12 million cap hit on a Cup contender—one with plenty of his Finnish friends. He also gets to put the mayhem of the past few weeks in the rearview and focus on a Cup run.

Not a bad ending for the main character of the 2025 trade deadline.

Winners: Colorado Avalanche

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And you get a center, and you get a center, and you get a center!

The Avalanche have been extremely competent when it comes to identifying and solving the specific, simple needs they had this season.

Bad goaltending? Let’s ship ‘em out and acquire two superior netminders. Tougher center depth? How do Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle sound? Can’t re-sign Mikko Rantanen? How about the best version of Martin Necas the world has ever seen?

These win-now moves in a brutal division could end with Mikko Rantanen facing his former team in the first round. Colorado was bold, but it needed to be to keep contending.

Losers: Vancouver Canucks

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Evaluating Vancouver’s 2025 trade deadline was always going to be tricky. In what world would they have ended up winners? 

If they traded Brock Boeser, they would’ve stripped their roster of playoff prowess, goal-scoring and morale. If they traded Elias Pettersson, it would’ve been terrible value. Things are looking bleak, but they’re still right in the mix on the playoff bubble. Instead of blowing it all up right now, why not attempt to make the playoffs and blow it all up later?

The original point still stands: No matter what the Canucks did this trade deadline, they were not going to end up winners. So here we are, riding it out until the bitter end.

Winner: Kyle Dubas

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As much as we’ve criticized the will-they-won’t-they Penguins under general manager Kyle Dubas, he inherited a Ron Hextall-shaped mess. Dubas has been transparent about his plans, ushering in a new era of Penguins hockey as the dynasty fades further and further into the rearview.

We’ve seen plenty of tough decisions in his tenure, most notably the Jake Guentzel trade. But this deadline was more of a light at the end of the tunnel, as Dubas put in the work to move his process along.

The sellers' market paid off, with the Penguins flipping Anthony Beauvillier for a 2025 second-round pick and Cody Glass for a third-rounder. They also dealt Luke Schenn, whom they acquired days ago, for second- and fourth-round picks. Despite plenty of offers, Dubas held on to Rickard Rakell, whom he could trade for even better value down the road.

‘Twas a shrewd and sneaky smart day in Pittsburgh, and the team is headed in a younger direction.

Losers: Opposing Teams Facing Rat Kings in Florida

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2025 is the year of the snake everywhere except Florida, where it is officially the year of the rat.

The Panthers pulled off one of the biggest blockbusters of the deadline at the buzzer, acquiring former Bruins captain Brad Marchand from their heated Atlantic Division foes.

There’s so much to unpack here from the Bruins’ house-clearing standpoint as they part ways with the homegrown captain who played nearly two decades in Boston, the last remaining relic of the 2011 Cup team. But for now, let’s imagine a future in which a line consisting of Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk exists. This is the timeline we are now living in, and I cannot think of a more dreadful line to go up against come playoff time.