The NHL trade deadline came and went and the landscape of the NHL has become clearer since this time last week. It was a relatively quiet one for the Anaheim Ducks as their placement in league standings likely discouraged general manager Pat Verbeek from buying and the lack of pending UFAs on the roster prevented him from selling too much.
What a Mikko Rantanen Trade to the Ducks Could Look Like
The Ducks ended up acquiring goaltending depth, mainly for the San Diego Gulls of the AHL, in the form of Ville Husso and defensive depth in the form of Oliver Kylington. The most significant transaction made by Anaheim was trading defenseman Brian Dumoulin to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for a 2025 second-round pick and forward prospect Herman Traff.
“There’s a lot of talk, but nothing ever got to where I would consider serious and start negotiating. Really, nothing,” Verbeek said after the deadline when asked if he came close to any other trades. “We kind of looked around to see. Talk to all the teams and see if there are things that they’re considering.
“We looked at a lot of different things, things you kind of noodle around with, and see if it makes sense or it doesn’t make sense. I think once I got the Brian Dumoulin trade in place, it was really just kind of a ‘kick the tires’ sort of thing the rest of the time.”
By far the biggest name on the entire market was forward Mikko Rantanen, who, after a lengthy saga, wound up going to the Dallas Stars attached to an eight-year extension that carries an AAV of $12 million. He had previously been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes from the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 24.
“I think this just didn’t feel like home to him”
Eric Tulsky on the Mikko Rantanen trade, whether there were extension talks before acquiring him, and what ultimately led to him moving on from Carolina#RaiseUp #TheSheet pic.twitter.com/2wYWHhTXqE
— The Sheet with Jeff Marek (@thesheethockey) March 11, 2025
Premier NHL insider Pierre LeBrun from The Athletic and TSN reported both in his column and on “The Athletic Hockey Show” podcast on Monday that there was a long list of teams who at least showed interest in trading for Rantanen leading up to Friday’s noon deadline. One of the teams mentioned in both instances was the Anaheim Ducks.
“But we know that the Florida Panthers were in there hard, not surprisingly. Toronto, well documented. My colleague Ryan Rishaug at TSN Edmonton reported that the Oilers were in there. LA had interest. Vegas. Then I got to another line of teams that really surprised me, but that I confirmed also tried,” LeBrun said on the podcast. “(The) Calgary Flames, Anaheim Ducks, Utah Hockey Club, among the other teams tried on Rantanen last week.”
It had been reported since the trade that Rantanen was only willing to sign an extension with four teams, so that limited the number of teams, like the Ducks, in consideration.
Really interesting stuff here, via @AGoldFan:
Brind’Amour: “When [Rantanen] showed up, he said, ‘There’s four teams I’ll go play for, and you’re not one of them.’ And the question is, should we have known that before we signed him?”
Necas said something similar a couple of days… pic.twitter.com/4FDHS86Do7
— Bailey Curtis (@baileyycurtis) March 10, 2025
“So obviously in those three cases, they would have wanted him signed,” LeBrun continued. “I don’t think those teams were in the main event with it, but nevertheless.”
Judging by previous reports of Verbeek’s failed courtships of Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault during the free agency period of 2024, coupled with the fact that he was at least interested in both Alex DeBrincat in 2023 and now Rantanen, it’s clear Verbeek is keen on making a big acquisition that could boost the Ducks through to the next stage of their progression toward contention. It only seems a matter of time.
