What might the Oilers have looked like with Mikko Rantanen in the fold? That question hangs over one of the biggest deadline swings of 2025, a day that helped shape the next two Stanley Cup champions and shifted the NHL’s balance of power.
On March 7, 2025, the Carolina Hurricanes moved Rantanen to the Dallas Stars for Logan Stankoven and a pile of draft picks. Hours later, just before the deadline, the Florida Panthers landed Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins.
That deal mattered too, but the Rantanen trade was the headliner. It sent shockwaves through the league, and the ripple effects have kept going: Rantanen later helped Dallas pull off a legendary Game 7 comeback against the Colorado Avalanche, while Stankoven became a key part of Carolina’s Stanley Cup run the next year.
The twist is that Dallas was not the only team chasing Rantanen. The morning after the trade, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported that the Oilers had taken a “huge swing” at him and were deep into extension talks with his camp. They just couldn’t get a deal done with Carolina.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman later reported that the Hurricanes had shown interest in Evan Bouchard during those discussions, but Edmonton chose not to move him and couldn’t put together a different package that worked.
So what if they had?
In one version of the story, Edmonton sends Bouchard to Carolina for Rantanen. The forward group would have been outrageous: Hyman, McDavid and Rantanen on one line, with Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Kane, Perry and the rest filling out a group that would have been as deep as any contender’s. On paper, that top end looks good enough to stand toe-to-toe with Florida.
The problem is the blue line. Without Bouchard, and with Mattias Ekholm already injured, the right side gets thin fast.
Walman and Klingberg were a strong puck-moving pair in the 2025 playoffs, and Nurse-Stecher outscored their opponents at five-on-five, but both pairs benefited from softer usage. Without Bouchard to absorb the heavy lifting, that setup becomes a lot harder to maintain.
The penalty kill was already shaky in the playoffs, and even if Rantanen slid into Nugent-Hopkins’ spot on the power play with one of Walman, Klingberg or Ekholm running the unit, there would have been an adjustment period after changing a longtime structure. In that scenario, Edmonton might not have had enough on the back end to survive, even with a loaded attack.
There’s another version, though, and this one is cleaner for Edmonton.
In that alternate deal, the Oilers keep Bouchard and build a package around Matthew Savoie, with Viktor Arvidsson included to make the money work and a large haul of picks to match what Dallas gave up, including two first-round picks and two third-round picks. That’s obviously more speculative, but if Carolina had valued Savoie highly enough, the framework works for this exercise.
That roster looks much more dangerous. Arvidsson is the only real subtraction from the 2025 playoff group, while Rantanen gives Edmonton a third superstar forward without gutting the defense.
The top six would have had real punch, and the back end stays intact with Bouchard still there. Even with Zach Hyman injured, that version of the Oilers would have been much better equipped to go at the Panthers.
The catch comes later. Edmonton was already pressed hard against the cap entering 2025-26, and a Rantanen extension - reportedly above Dallas’ $12 million AAV offer - would have forced painful decisions.
Even if the Oilers had skipped Andrew Mangiapane and Trent Frederic, moved Brett Kulak before the season, and filled those spots with league-minimum players, it still likely wouldn’t have been enough to squeeze in another $12.5-$13 million. If no one was willing to waive a no-movement clause, the cleanest path might have been to move Ekholm’s $6.25 million.
In other words: possible, but messy.
That’s the whole Rantanen puzzle in a nutshell. The Stars got the player who helped drive them to the Western Conference Final, the Hurricanes got the pieces that helped fuel a title the following year, and the Oilers were left to wonder what might have happened if they had found a way to close the deal.
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