7 Teams With Urgent Needs Ahead of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline

The 4 Nations Face-Off is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only did it entertain us more than recent All-Star games and bring in thousands of new hockey fans, but it held us over in the dreaded lull between American Thanksgiving and the trade deadline.

Can you believe the 2025 deadline is now less than two weeks away? Have you mentally prepared yet? You’d better hope your favorite team has, as this one’s going to be a doozy. The Hurricanes and the Avalanche (“Hey, stop forgetting about me!” - Taylor Hall, probably) set the stage earlier this month with the blockbuster trade featuring Mikko Rantanen and Martin Necas. It feels like anything is possible this deadline, especially with the cap set to rise more this offseason than it has since before the pandemic.

How about we ease into things with a look at the teams in some of the most pressing positions headed into March 7.

The Bruins could be deadline sellers this season for the first time since Don Sweeney became general manager in 2015. Sweeney and team president Cam Neely have operated under an “all in to win” mentality for years, sacrificing first rounders for deadline rentals while much of the core that won the 2011 Cup was still intact and producing. 

Now, greats like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Zdeno Chara have retired, the Jeremy Swayman-Linus Ullmark goaltending tandem that kept the team afloat without top centers is over, and the Bruins have fallen out of a playoff spot.

Sweeney addressed the media Sunday and you got the sense this deadline will look different.

“I think historically we’ve been pretty aggressive when our team’s been in a position. I think we’ll take a much more cautious approach as we approach the deadline,” Sweeney told reporters. “...We’ll look at all opportunities to improve our team now, but even more importantly, moving forward … (the deadline) may plant a seed for the draft and beyond. There will be a lot of conversations with people asking what possible moves we can make. Just going to take a little more cautious approach in terms of being as aggressive as we’ve been in the past.”

When you hear terms like “cautious,” the last thing you think of is trading the last piece of that 2011 team: homegrown star captain Brad Marchand. But the 36-year-old winger’s contract expires at the end of this season, and the cap is expected to rise significantly. Marchand has said he intends to retire a Bruin, and the Bruins are trying to extend him. But he had a significant impact during the 4 Nations Face-Off and teams have inquired. If he really wants to go for one more Cup, and the Bruins really want to start a retool, theoretically the option is there.

It wouldn’t be the NHL trade deadline if we weren’t looking to rehome a ridiculously expensive right-handed defenseman. This year’s talk of the town is 30-year-old Seth Jones, whose $9.5 million cap hit lasts until 2030.

Jones is eager to win at this point in his career, and at this point he’s openly stated his willingness to waive his no-movement clause. Meanwhile the Blackhawks are still in the depths of their rebuild, and their season has been perhaps even more miserable than anticipated. Could they retain some salary for Jones and get him off the books to accelerate the rebuild?

A team on the right side of the bubble but lacking defensive depth—perhaps the Red Wings or the Flames—would bite. Both Detroit and Calgary want to invest in the present and future, and maybe a change of scenery for Jones could help them do that. 

At what point does Gabriel Landeskog’s uncertain future start to interfere with the Avalanche’s trade deadline plans and potential playoff depth acquisitions? The Avalanche don’t seem at risk to fall out of a playoff spot, and Martin Necas is scoring at over a point per game clip since the Mikko Rantanen trade. 

But now that the high-end talent and the goaltending situations have been dealt with, this looks like a team that could use just a bit more scoring to even out the top heaviness. Will Landeskog return and potentially provide that, or will he sit the rest of this season out and give the Avalanche the opportunity to outsource a little more scoring at the deadline?

Look, the aforementioned Jones to Detroit deal could work if the Blackhawks retain an absolute boatload of cap space, but it could handcuff Detroit in an obviously overcommital way that would bleed into the future. Regardless, the Ducks did them a solid earlier this week as they took veteran goalie Ville Husso’s $4.75 million AAV off the books in return for future considerations.

The Wings will be working with a projected ~$14 million in cap space at the deadline, and they’ve got more than enough high draft picks for suitors to choose from. You could see them going the defense route, given how weak the depth is in that position despite some top heavy star power. You could also see them deciding to really go for it with a veteran goaltender. 

Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon are both above .900 on the season, and improved as the team did after the terrible start. But things are looking questionable again at the wrong time, and you wonder if “future considerations” could mean, like, next week if the Red Wings decided to trade for John Gibson?

Regardless, they’ve got to find a way to turn things around on the defensive side of the ice for the present and the future.

Speaking of Gibson, you can’t really imagine a better fit for the stabilizing, win-hungry veteran than the Oilers. Look, when Stuart Skinner is great, he’s fantastic. But when he’s off, it’s tough to watch combined with the sometimes shaky Oilers defensive depth. 

In the two games since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off, the team has surrendered a combined 13 goals against the Flyers and the Capitals. 

According to GM Stan Bowman, the answer is “No,” the Oilers aren’t looking to trade for another goaltender.

It’d be pretty tricky anyways, considering their cap situation and lack of feasible offerings. But if “no” really is the final answer, they might look back and regret this one.

The Rangers have had the most puzzling, frustrating season at every turn, and thus, they’re the biggest wild cards headed into the trade deadline.

They’ve already traded four players since the start of the season—and they’ve brought in J.T. Miller in the process—but you get the sense they aren’t done quite yet.

Can we even be sure if they’re buyers or sellers, given their playoff bubble position and erratic dealings? Maybe they’re going for both. Perhaps they’ll move Reilly Smith, Jimmy Vesey, and/or Ryan Lindgren, considering these pending UFA players are all in their own way classic rentals who probably won’t return to New York next season. 

What do the Rangers need (other than an exorcism)? When a team finds itself existentially lost like this, you take a good, hard look at the center. Granted, it’s been a down year for many of the Rangers’ stars and maybe only a no-nonsense offseason and better vibes next season can fix that, but maybe you see what else is poppin’ at center. Since they’ve already done that, another potential fix for this team is a left-hand defenseman.

According to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, a team source said that GM Kyle Dubas would trade Erik Karlsson “in a heartbeat” if he could. 

Karlsson is the highest-paid NHL defenseman, and although the Sharks are paying $1.5 million of that annually for the next two seasons, he’ll end up costing a team $10 million against the cap annually. He’s also got a no-movement clause, and he’s had his bright spots, but all of this is a lot of work to acquire a player who hasn’t had the best season by any means. 

A team might bite if the Penguins retain a large portion of his salary (sensing a pattern, anyone?) but Dubas and Co. will likely have to focus on other assets if they wish to sell—and it appears they do. We’ll see if the 4 Nations Face-Off bump pays off.

Could Rickard Rakell, who’s having a great season on pace to surpass 30 goals at a $5 million cap hit, be on the table? The 31-year-old’s got three years on his contract after this one, and knowing how the salary cap is trending, that’s a low-risk, high-reward acquisition for any team. But that also means the Penguins don’t have to deal him at the deadline, so those hoping to acquire him will pay a pretty penny in other assets.