Monster trade involving Toronto, Vegas and Carolina falls apart.
A huge trade involving a pair of NHL stars failed to get across the finish line.
This is the kind of trade that very likely would have changed the landscape of the National Hockey League, one that may have even impacted the outcome of this year's Stanley Cup playoffs had it come to pass.
By now most of you have probably heard that the Toronto Maple Leafs made numerous attempts to acquire star forward Mikko Rantanen during the course of the 2024-25 regular season, with reports indicating that Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner refused to waive his no-movement clause in order to make such a trade a reality. What you may not have heard of however was just how close this deal came to becoming a reality, with reportedly three different NHL teams involved in this transaction before it eventually fell apart.
Maple Leafs insider James Mirtle is now reporting that the Vegas Golden Knights, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes were all involved in a deal that would have sent Mitch Marner to the Golden Knights and Mikko Rantanen to the Maple Leafs. It seems that Vegas' end of the deal, one in which they would have had to offer the Hurricanes significant compensation, is where the problems with this trade arose.
From Mirtle:
It’s unclear just how far those talks went, or if Marner was asked to waive his no-movement clause to go to Vegas, but it sounds like what killed the deal was Vegas and Carolina failing to find the right assets to include to get it done — not anything on the Toronto side.
There has been a segment of the Maple Leafs fan base that has been eager to move on from Marner due to his inability to deliver in the Stanley Cup playoffs and no doubt those fans will be furious to hear how close they came to finding a rather suitable replacement for Marner in the form of Rantanen. That is likely only made worse by the fact that Rantanen would go on to play so well for the Dallas Stars, the team that eventually acquired him, with 9 goals and 13 assists for 22 points in just 18 playoff games.
Marner also produced offensively for the Maple Leafs but had far fewer goals with 2 goals and 11 assists for 13 points over 13 playoff games this year.
While this deal failed to become a reality, Marner now appears to be destined to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st and it may very well be the case that the Vegas Golden Knights are still interested in his services.
