NHL Trade Grades: Rantanen, Kakko, Trouba, and More

The NHL trade deadline for the 2024-25 season is not until March 7, but teams have not waited until the last minute to make major moves.

For every significant trade that occurs during the season, you'll find a grade for it here, including David Jiricek to the Minnesota Wild, Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks swapping goaltenders, Cam Fowler to the St. Louis Blues, Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken and the blockbuster deal sending Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes and Martin Necas to the Avalanche.

Read on for grades from Ryan S. Clark and Greg Wyshynski, and check back the next time a big deal breaks.

Rantanen to the Hurricanes, Necas to the Avalanche

Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Then the NHL got loud Friday with the first blockbuster trade in recent memory.

The Colorado Avalanche traded winger Mikko Rantanen in a three-team deal involving the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks. Both Taylor Hall and Rantanen went to the Hurricanes, with Jack Drury and Martin Necas going to the Avs. The Avs also received a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick from the Hurricanes. The Blackhawks reacquired their original 2025 third-round pick while retaining 50% of Rantanen's salary. Prospect Nils Juntorp went from Chicago to Colorado then to Carolina.

How did each GM perform on a landscape-altering trade? Let's find out.

Carolina Hurricanes

Grade: A+

Quite simply, the Hurricanes are coming for everyone.

The franchise that built its success from drafting and developing has now added an aggressive edge to be active in free agency, while pursuing the sort of trades that make them an even stronger Stanley Cup contender.

Already one of the NHL's more legitimate championship front runners, the Canes getting Rantanen and Hall only heightens the expectations that they have a roster capable of winning it all this season.

Rantanen provides a level of goal-scoring and playmaking ability that could make a potential first line featuring Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov one of the more dangerous in the NHL. Rantanen's ability to facilitate play while using his powerful, 6-foot-4 frame to fend off defenders could be the detail that allows Aho and Svechnikov the needed time to find the type of space that places opponents in a difficult spot.

Colorado Avalanche

Grade: B+

Practically any conversation about what has made the Avs one of the NHL's most successful teams over the last six seasons has included Rantanen's name.

His ability to create for himself, create for others, and do it in a way that could either complement Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar -- but wasn't reliant on MacKinnon and/or Makar -- is what made Rantanen quite valuable. He is a five-time 30-goal scorer and also hit the 50-assist mark five times.

And maybe all of that was the problem for the Avs and Rantanen when it came finalizing any sort of deal.

Rantanen was a pending unrestricted free agent in the final season of a six-year deal that saw him earn $9.25 million per year. At the time he signed the contract, he was the Avs' highest-paid player. Entering this season, he was second behind MacKinnon, who is in the first year of a deal that sees him earn $12.6 million annually.

Each month that passed without both sides agreeing to a deal led to talk that maybe the Avs could move on from Rantanen. But it initially appeared that the talk was, well, just that.

Until it wasn't.

It appears the impasse the Avs were facing with Rantanen was the premium that comes with having a third superstar. Even though the salary cap will continue its rise in the coming years, there were still financial considerations the Avs' front office had to ponder.

They have three more years of Valeri Nichushkin ($6.31 million per year) and Devon Toews ($7.25 million). Ross Colton ($4 million), Samuel Girard ($5.75 million), Arturri Lehkonen ($4.5 million) and Casey Mittelstadt ($5.75 million) are part of a group that has two years left on their deals.

Then there's the money they didn't expect to take on this season when their original goaltending tandem of Justus Annunen and Alexander Georgiev began to struggle and cost the team wins.

Annunen and Georgiev's deals cost a combined $4.237 million cap hit that brought an extra layer of financial flexibility. Annunen is a pending restricted free agent while Georgiev was going to be a pending UFA.

But then, the Avs replaced them with Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. While it strengthened the weakest area of the team, it came with a cost. Blackwood signed a three-year deal less than a month after they received him, which saw his salary go from $2.35 million annually to $5.25 million annually next season.

Now the Avalanche have $6.75 million committed to their goalies through 2025-26.

Having that much money wrapped up in those players -- along with the Gabriel Landeskog uncertainty, and the fact he has three more years left at $7 million on his contract -- comes against the backdrop of what the Avs must contend with after the 2026-27 season when Makar will need a very large new contract.

It's possible Makar could command the biggest contract in the NHL. And if so, it would leave the Avs needing as much financial flexibility as possible in an offseason that also sees Colton, Girard, Lehkonen and Mittlestadt reach free agency.

That's one of the hypotheticals facing the Avalanche. Another was why take the risk in losing one of the NHL's premier wingers for nothing?

Although Necas is not a prolific producer like Rantanen, he does provide the Avs with a consistent two-way center who can anchor their second line in a way in which others have struggled since Nazem Kadri left in free agency after winning the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Necas is averaging a career-best 1.12 points per game this season, with the belief those figures could either sustain or increase given the Avs have a history of seeing new players succeed in their system.

There's also the financial implication in that Necas has one more year left on his deal at $6.5 million before he hits free agency. Should the Avs look to re-sign him, the expectation is it would hypothetically come at a cost that is much cheaper compared to whatever Rantanen would have commanded.

While the chances of finding a like-for-like trade might have proven difficult, the Avs still received a two-way top-six center in Necas, with Drury giving them another bottom-six option.

Chicago Blackhawks

Grade: C-

Asset management is everything for rebuilding teams. The Blackhawks know this, which is what makes their return in this trade rather puzzling.

Hall was expected to be moved ahead of the trade deadline. The Blackhawks were perceived to be looking to receive draft capital in return for a player who could either be a top-six or at least top-nine option for a contender.

Getting a third-round pick for Hall whether the Blackhawks retained any of his salary? OK, bet. Getting a third-round pick for retaining 50% of a salary to facilitate a deal as a third-party broker? Sure, that's the price of doing business.

But to only receive a single draft pick while giving up Hall and retaining 50% of Rantanen's salary? That raises quite a few questions about why the Hawks couldn't attract more in this deal, particularly upon the realization that the Avs received a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick in addition to getting two NHL players in Drury and Necas.

The Blackhawks are not struggling for draft capital. They entered Friday with eight picks for 2025, nine picks for 2026 and seven picks in 2027. They'll have four picks in the first two rounds this summer, including two first-rounders. But no franchise in a rebuild has ever openly complained about having too many draft picks.

They couldn't get more than a single pick here?

There was always the hypothetical that Hall's $6 million cap hit meant they would have had to retain salary. But retaining 50% of Rantanen's salary costs more than it would have to retain the same percentage of Hall's.

Yes, the Blackhawks already had two of their three salary retention slots filled before the trade. But to know that was their final slot once again raises questions about whether they could have received more draft capital upon knowing there was a premium for that last retention slot?

Moving on from Hall now means the Blackhawks have other pending UFAs that could be used to attain more draft capital (albeit without retention). It's a group that includes Ryan Donato, Pat Maroon and Alec Martinez among others, as the franchise is in line for its fourth consecutive top-10 pick and its third straight top-three pick.

Donato carries a $2 million cap hit, while Maroon is at $1.3 million, which makes their salaries more affordable for an interested team. Martinez has a $4 million cap hit that could require a third party broker -- thus again raising the question of why they burned their own last spot on a deal that netted them only a third-round pick. -- Clark