Five NHL teams that could make moves amid quiet free agency

For NHL clubs hoping to find an answer on July 1, a cure for their on-ice ailments, free agency came like a worst-case scenario. It was over before it began, the well running dry before the hopefuls even got a chance to peer over the edge.

It started back in January, when a shock deal sent Mikko Rantanen to Carolina, and then to Dallas a couple months later, taking the first key piece off the board.

Then came the tidy business from the defending champs, Florida locking up all three of Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad, a trio of prime targets for rival hopefuls.

And to top it all off, there was Mitch Marner getting dealt to Vegas, free agency’s biggest fish plucked from the pond before the lines had hit the water. 

By the time free agency opened, the game-changers were already spoken for, the few reliable back-up options gone soon, too.

It’s left a few particular clubs in the lurch. For those who’ve found themselves committed to significant roster surgery — by choice or not — the lack of free-agent options has left their lineups lacking, with holes still in need of filling and no simple solutions out there.

That in mind, let’s take a look at a few clubs who may be forced to turn to the trade market to bring in the type of the pieces they’d hoped to find in free agency.

Given where Edmonton sat on the final day of the playoffs, the off-season plan of attack seemed clear. Coming off a Stanley Cup Final against a Panthers squad that seemed deeper up front and steadier in net, the Oilers’ central tasks seemed to be improving the offensive options behind their Hall of Fame leaders, and deciding whether to stick with Stuart Skinner in the cage.

But so far, the off-season has seen the Oilers go backward. Corey Perry, who put up the fourth-most goals of any playoff participant in 2025, left for Los Angeles. Depth pieces Connor Brown and John Klingberg walked too. And a pair of summer trades thinned out the forward corps further, sending Evander Kane and Viktor Arvidsson out of town.

GM Stan Bowman did add one meaningful new piece in Andrew Mangiapane, the one-time 35-goal-scorer who long suited up on the other side of the Battle of Alberta, before a brief stint in Washington.

But Connor McDavid’s club hardly seems ready for another run at the Panthers, who beat them with a punishingly offensive third line. Adding further won’t be simple — the Oil aren’t exactly flush with cap space — but if progress is to be found next season, more needle-moving acquisitions seem sorely needed.

According to 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, it seems the Oilers have at least mulled a trade that would move out a key piece in order to continue reshaping their roster — per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the team asked veterans Darnell Nurse and Adam Henrique if they would be willing to waive their no-trade clauses, but both said they would prefer to stay.

Should that change, Nick Kypreos’s Off-Season Trade Board offers a few names who could be worth a swing, most notably young centreman Marco Rossi and Cup champ Evan Rodrigues, though depth pieces Dawson Mercer and Ross Colton could be useful adds, too. Also worth monitoring: per Friedman, the Vancouver Canucks could look to move out a depth piece of their own in an effort to open up a roster spot for Arshdeep Bains, with Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua named as two who may be available.

After years of clamouring for some semblance of difference, the Maple Leafs faithful got their wish — the Core Four Era is over, Mitch Marner is a Golden Knight, and the 2025-26 squad will feel undeniably different. But what happens next is crucial for the blue and white.

The value of moving on from the previous setup isn’t simply not having as many stars at the top of the lineup, it’s spreading around the money that had pooled in the top six and bolstering the depth throughout.

The first step has happened — the team is down one all-star — but to this point, the Maple Leafs have yet to add any truly needle-moving pieces to collectively replace what’s been lost. Nicolas Roy was acquired in the Marner sign-and-trade, and Matias Maccelli was brought in soon after. Both are solid additions, but as it looks right now, the roster seems less a better-balanced group and more an offensively diminished one.

There’s no question Toronto was stung by the way July 1 shook out. As far back as the middle of the playoffs, there was talk of the Maple Leafs’ interest in Bennett, Marchand and Ekblad, before all three re-upped in Florida. The club was, of course, in on Rantanen too, before he wound up in Dallas. According to Friedman, GM Brad Treliving also took a run at Mangiapane, had interest in Tanner Jeannot, and weighed a move for JJ Peterka, but missed out on all three additions. Toronto seems on the verge of inking two-time 20-goal-scorer Jack Roslovic, which is a start.

Still, given the immense pressure that will be on the Maple Leafs to deliver without Marner, a couple more proven contributors seem much-needed.

A pair of alternate options might reside in Pittsburgh, with former GM Kyle Dubas, as Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust are both potentially available from the rebuilding Pens. Rakell (who has three more seasons at $5 million per year) is fresh off a career-best 35-goal, 70-point campaign, while Rust (three more years at $5.13 million per year) collected career highs of 31 goals and 65 points last season.

Per Friedman, veterans David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok are both candidates to be moved out of Toronto, freeing up another $4.5 million in cap space to help facilitate a trade.

Winnipeg had less of a say in the shake-up that came this off-season, the Jets losing star winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who simply wanted a fresh start elsewhere. The great Dane benefitted most from the thin free-agency market, taking time to weigh his options before inking a $51-million deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Jets find themselves in an interesting spot. They head into 2025-26 coming off a dominant regular season that saw them lead wire to wire and win the Presidents’ Trophy by the year’s end. Then came a disappointing post-season, and a Round 2 exit. In each of the past three years, Winnipeg has been bounced from the playoffs in early rounds by a Western Conference behemoth: Vegas in 2023, Colorado in 2024, Dallas in 2025. 

Now, they’re tasked with finding progress while navigating the loss of one of their most prolific scorers, Ehlers having finished third among all Jets forwards with 24 goals and 63 points last season.

The club lost two other wingers as well, as Mason Appleton signed in Detroit and Brandon Tanev signed in Utah. Making matters worse, Winnipeg will start the season without Adam Lowry, the captain still recovering from a hip surgery that will likely keep him out of the lineup through the early months of the campaign.

As pointed out by the 32 Thoughts duo, the issue in Winnipeg is just how crucial a strong start was to the team’s sterling 2024-25 season — progress aside, the Jets no doubt don’t want to start on the wrong foot and wind up taking a step back next year. But it seems they’ll open 2025-26 as a notably different group up front. 

GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has added some new names to the forward corps already — Jonathan Toews will make a run at an NHL return in his hometown, while the Jets also added Gustav Nyquist, Tanner Pearson and a number of other free-agent depth forwards.

The collection of additions could mean they’re less likely to wade into the trade market. But the Jets have cap space to work with, given they’d planned to pay Ehlers — if they want to find a meaningful step forward next season, and a path to finally getting by their conference’s best, more help may still be needed up front to replace the star winger’s contributions. 

One potential option who might just be available via trade, according to the 32 Thoughts crew, and could help shore up Winnipeg’s centre depth: 20-goal, 60-point pivot Nick Schmaltz, who has a year left at $5.85 million.

There’s little mystery surrounding the Kings’ situation. For four straight years, L.A. has seen its post-season ended in the same round, by the same team. Before looking any further down the post-season line, the Kings just need to figure out how to contend with Connor McDavid’s Oilers — there is no deep run, no crack at the Cup, without navigating a path through No. 97.

The Kings have hunted for star power to match up with the Oilers’ top duo, but saw a worst-case scenario come to pass when dream target Marner wound up signing with L.A.’s division rival in Vegas, making the path out of the Pacific even tougher. Then came the loss of key defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who left L.A. in free agency to sign a seven-year, $49-million deal with the New York Rangers.

Much like the clubs above, the Kings are caught in a difficult position — needing to find the next step next season, but staring down few options for meaningful improvement.

Rewind to the playoffs, and it seemed to be a lack of depth that sunk L.A., the Oilers getting the better of the Kings’ bottom six and third defence pair. New GM Ken Holland has attempted to shore up those holes, inking Corey Perry and Joel Armia up front, and bringing in defenders Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci as the club’s new depth duo.

But none of those additions vastly change the Kings’ fortunes the way Marner’s arrival might have. In fact, their rivals in Vegas now seem the club best set up to try to dethrone Edmonton in the West. For the Kings to keep up, they need to find a new game-changer of their own.

On that front, another dream trade-market swing sits out west in Jason Robertson, unlikely as it would be for Dallas to deal the winger within the conference, if at all. What’s clear is the Kings need something more, else there’s little reason to believe the fifth time’s a charm against Edmonton.

Colorado’s roster has been in flux since the January blockbuster that upended the league. First came the initial Rantanen deal, which brought in Martin Necas and Jack Drury, then came a slew of others that brought Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle, Jimmy Vesey and Ryan Lindgren.

Late last month, the Avs reversed course somewhat, sending Coyle and Miles Wood to Columbus. In free agency, the club snagged veteran blue-liner Brent Burns.

It’s been a whirlwind stretch for the Avalanche as they try to keep up with a group of Western Conference contenders that keeps getting stronger. And as with L.A., the arrival of Marner in Vegas only ratchets up the urgency for Colorado to meaningfully improve heading into 2025-26.

According to Friedman, the Avs are expected to continue tinkering as they look to improve their bottom six — although the group around Nathan MacKinnon up top remains promising, given the return of Gabriel Landeskog and the recent additions of Necas and Nelson, the crew below them doesn’t seem set up to contend with the rest of the league’s best, especially after seeing what Florida’s bottom six did to Edmonton. Removing Coyle and Wood from the equation didn’t help matters.

Colorado’s attempted free-agency swings show the calibre of player it’s looking to add, as Friedman reported the Avs were among the clubs in on Ehlers before he decided to sign in Carolina. Now assessing the fallback options, Colorado could be another potential landing spot for Utah’s Schmaltz, or one of Pittsburgh’s talented wingers.

For GM Chris MacFarland, it’s a big-picture question, tied to how the Avs brass views the strength of the other contenders around them: Do they go the Vegas route, and do all they can to build enough depth to compete with the league’s best? Or do they go the L.A. route, trust in MacKinnon and Cale Makar, and add only on the fringes?