NHL Rumor Mill – August 18, 2025
Could the Red Wings and Ducks swing a trade involving Mason McTavish? What’s the latest on the Penguins? Find out in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
RG.ORG: James Murphy recently reported that an NHL executive claimed that the Detroit Red Wings were among the teams with an interest in Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish.
Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish? (NHL Images)
The 22-year-old McTavish is a restricted free agent who has yet to re-sign with the Ducks. Murphy indicated the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens are among the teams keeping tabs on the young center.
Murphy’s source suggested the longstanding relationship between Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek and Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman could help to facilitate a deal.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Verbeek and Yzerman worked together for years with the Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nevertheless, the Ducks GM isn’t under pressure to trade McTavish, and he also has the cap space to match any offer sheet from a rival club.
Verbeek will set a high price for McTavish if he decides to trade him. The asking price will likely include a good young roster player and perhaps a top prospect.
PITTSBURGH HOCKEY NOW: Dan Kingerski believes there is still much left undone in Pittsburgh and around the league during this offseason. Penguins fans are still waiting for general manager Kyle Dubas to make the trade that reshapes the roster and allows him to plant his flag on a rebuild.
Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers cannot continue with their goaltender malaise, the Detroit Red Wings still need to get over the playoff hump, and the Toronto Maple Leafs appear to have replaced the departed Mitch Marner with Nick Robertson.
In Boston, the Bruins need more talent to rebound from a disappointing season, while the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders are “stuck amongst the junior varsity in the East, but have much bigger hopes.”
Speaking of the Penguins, Kingerski recently cited Dubas telling the “Cam & Strick” podcast that teams are calling him to reacquire their second and third-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft. “And you know why,” said Dubas. “So that’s their business. If they want to pay a fair price, we probably talk about it.”
Kingerski pointed out the Penguins own the St. Louis Blues’ and Winnipeg Jets’ second-rounders, and the San Jose Sharks’ third rounder.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Those clubs could want those picks back because next year’s draft is considered a deep one talent-wise. However, they could also want them back because it would enable them to pursue one of the few remaining notable restricted free agents with offer sheets. Let your imagination run wild in the comments section below.
It is nice you admit there is a malaise in Edmonton over goaltending. The Oilers organization and the hockey media in Edmonton don’t.
Alan Pinder-Moss, let me begin by admitting I don’t see enough Oilers games to form an opinion as to whether or not the problem is indeed solely a goaltender “malaise” or if it’s partially due to a significantly less than total two-way game on the part of the Fs and D breakdowns.
I have, however, read comments in here by acknowledged team fans that suggest it’s all a consistent goaltending issue, while others have pointed to poor defensive coverage.
But regardless of which it is, one thing is certain -Bowman is simply not going to get one of the established top goalies without relinquishing enough top assets which would immediately call the move into serious question. Nor will any of the better back-ups around the league be obtained cheaply.
Currently, Puckpedia shows 5 teams carrying 3 goalies each, something not likely to go beyond the start of the season, so a deal for one among those could be struck – either that or wait and see if any are open to waivers if attempts are made to send them to the minors: Anaheim – Dostal-Mrazek-Husso; Chicago – Knight-Brossoit-Soderblom; Utah 0 Vejmelka-Ingram-Vanecek; Philadelphia – Vladar-Fedotov-Ersson; NY Islander – Sorokin-Varlamov-Rittich.
Beyond that there’s the current crop of UFAs that include Carter Hart – who may be faced with further NHL restrictions, Ilya Samsonov, Alexander Georgiev and Georgii Romanov – none of whom would likely offer and better results than the current duo.
And besides, this team – even with the “malaise” if such exists – has been to the Stanley Cup finals in back-to-back years, and both times lost to a pretty solid all-round operation.
Alan, I think everyone understands the tending situation, including the team and the media. It isn’t hard to understand, only an idiot wouldn’t. Of course the Oil have made inquiries, supposedly they were in on Silovs for a backup, VCR didn’t want to trade him to a div rival.
Skinner was good in 23/24. Better than average for goalies who started at least 35 games. SV% was 14th. GSAA, IMO the most important stat, he was 12th in the NHL. In the playoffs he played great for most of his starts, struggled in others. He stood on his head against Dallas and got them into the SCF.
In his rookie year, 22/23 he was very good. 2nd in Calder voting.
Last year he mostly struggled, but also had 3 shutouts, including to start the playoffs. We all saw it, we can all read the stats.
He is now 26, which is young for a goalie even though he started for 3 years. Will he be better and again be a quality starter in 25/26? Who the F knows. But reality is, it could go either way. It’s tending and we can all give examples when good tenders lose it, then find it again. Some don’t find it again. Guys who show up seemingly out of nowhere and good for a year or 2, then gone again.
So you’re saying give up on Skinner? I wouldn’t.
People can whine about it, that’s easy. I wish my Bruins didn’t suck, but they do, and the options to make them good this year are not there. Same with the Oiler tending.
So who are you going to trade for that is better, and who are you trading to get them vs just complaining about the team and the generic “media”?
I suggested they go after Vladar as a UFA, has he is very athletic and at the age where tenders start to get it, he could become a viable starter. He got paid more than I thought, more than Skinner, and Oilers didn’t have the space to do it for a backup or 1B. And here we are.
One player who may become available during the season is Stolarz in Toronto. If he has a great start to the season, he may price himself out of Toronto. Both Stolarz and Woll say they’re content with the platooning, but both have said they want to be a true #1. With Stolarz being older (31) and a UFA at seasons end, he may just want more than Toronto willing to pay and Toronto believes they have 2 solid prospects with the Marlies
Makes sense from an asset MGT perspective Yogi, and is a reasonable suggestion.
Kinda depends how the Leafs, and specifically Woll, are doing IMO.
If they have a good season and Stolarz has played better than Woll, tough to trade him at the TDL. Safe to say, Leafs are in win now mode as well.
True Ray tough to trade anybody when they’re having a good season and yeah it depends on Woll too. Tons of factors come into play when you make a deal. You try to draw from one of your strenghts to fill a need. Right now goaltending may have become a position Toronto can draw from and the math says they can’t spend 10+ on goalies and Toronto hasn’t got an abundance of assets to fill other needs or at least assets they’re willing to give up. Not predicting they’ll move Stolarz, just thinking they may to fill another need
Ok with Lyles permission I’ll let my imagination run wild.
Even in a deep draft the odds of a second rounder becoming an impact player are around one in four. Odds are even longer for a third rounder. And if a team merely wanted to stock up on second or third rounders, they wouldn’t be limited to reacquiring their own picks. They could trade with any team. So it would likely be for offer sheet purposes.
That being said I’m treating this report with heaping mounds of salt.
I admittedly don’t t know much about Detroits young players or prospects but I feel like Montreal has the most resources to trade for a Rossi or Mctavish.
You’re probably correct Sr but at this point Hughes will not trade his top prospects nor his young top line players. And that’s what it’ll take. Yzerman, on the other hand, as I pointed out is in a more urgent situation.
Yes I agree but Montreal especially armchair Gms don’t want to give anything to get upper tier players…You don’t get Mactavish for Anderson Dach or Gallagher you need a young front line player and top prospect to get it done
Once again I don’t see McTavish going anywhere. Verbeeks price is very high, as it should be.
While I’d love to see McTavish on the Habs, I don’t see Hughes paying what it would cost. The Ducks would want Hage or, more likely, Reinbacher. I don’t see Hughes giving either of them up, especially Reinbacher. Then they’d want a good young roster player. Likely on the level of Guhle or Slafkovsky. Not happening. Hughes can afford to be patient in searching for a 2C.
For the same reason I don’t see the Canes as a possibility. The most likely team would be the Wings. Yzerman cannot afford to be patient. As Lyle points out, a playoff miss this season could spark his end in Motown,
Howard,
I don’t see Anaheim trading McTavish either not even 1 for 1 for Reinbacher or Hage.
I would do either in a heartbeat.
Habs have a top 4 D now, without Reinbacher (21 y/o October) and with guys still pushing.
Hage (19 y/o) is a prospect, looks good in development camp, NCAA, but isn’t lighting it up.
They both appear to be close to sure thing NHLers as can be.
McTavish (22y/o) is established now with a Floor of 2C.
Anaheim is in win now mode so they need players to step in now not solid prospects for a key roster player.
I see your point HabFan and agree with much of it. But bottom line, I don’t see Hughes trading Reinbacher unless it’s for a young player who has already established himself as a star. He doesn’t want to weaken one position to solidify another. But in any event I agree that the Ducks would want an established young player.
What HF30 said.
HF30, I see your point about trading Hage for McTavish. But it will take more than Hage. Who else? No idea, not going to speculate.
As for Reinbacher, go back to your own logic of last season when you advocated trading Matheson for Rasmus Andersson so the Habs could acquire a RH D. Yes, they now have Dobson, but that leaves Carrier as the only other RH D. And Carrier is not the other long term RH D.
Just as legit 2Cs are hard to come by, so are top 4 RHDs, so I fail to see the logic in trading Reinbacher. As I have asked before and Howard repeated below, what is gained by strengthening one position at the expense of the other?
Equally, I fail to see the logic in the Ducks’ trading their legit 2c in McTavish, especially when that means they would rely on Granlund for that role for the next few years.
The Ducks currently have 20 million in cap space which gives them more options than most teams should they wish to acquire a RH D – even if they acquire Price’s contract.
They other flaw in the argument is that the Ducks are in a win now situation. Not mere semantics to say they are in an improve now situation, which is different.
Were they really in a win now situation why have they not used some of that huge cap space to acquire a gaudy UFA? They could have outbid anyone else in the market, and their big UFA signing was Granlund. Doesn’t that say something?
LJ,
The difference in trading Reinbacher this year compared to last year is Dobson, a 25y/o proven minute muncher 1RD is on the team.
Carrier is the only other RD now, trading Reinbacher now won’t change that.
As it stands the Habs have Hutson, Matheson, Guhle, Dobson and Carrier as starting D.
Xhekaj, Struble, to fight over the last spot with Engstrom knocking and my dark horse Trudeau.
There’s no room for all 9 of them.
Anaheim needs a PP guy and RW.
So, I’d offer Reinbacher, Laine, Joshua Roy for McTavish and Luneau.
I would be fine with Laine and Roy as part of a package, trading Laine would solve the Habs cap problem.
However, in all the Habs D you list, they would have no other RH D in the system that could be considered NHLers. Your guy Trudeau is LH, as is Engstrom.
Luneau would give the Habs a RH D but he has played 6 games in the NHL. That’s a big bet you are making.
And if Luneau is a solid RHD, then the scenario leaves the Ducks trading him and McTavish, and getting Reinbacher who is no further ahead than Luneau at this point. Why would the Ducks do that? The trade would effectively be Laine and Roy for McTavish. I wish.
I still don’t see why the Ducks would trade McTavish unless it is for a massive haul, or unless he wants out of Anaheim. I haven’t heard that. Have you?
I expect the Habs’ plan is to see how the first 15 games go before they even consider moving Reinbacher.
LJ,
I’ll explain the rationale, Anaheim moves Granlund to centre, his countryman Laine goes to the wing, powerplay immediately pops like it did in Montreal and McTavish goals are replaced and then some.
Joshua Roy has question marks, Connor Bedard called him the smartest guy he got to play with, in theory he’s NHL ready but he’s blocked by Demidov and Bolduc in Montreal.
Reinbacher is a #5OA 6’3 210 shut down projected top4D and Luneau is a #53OA 6’1 200 offensive D.
Advantage Anaheim but not awful for Habs.
The Habs will be using a LD on the R this year with or without a trade probably Struble though Engstrom played RD in Laval for a large part of the year and in reality looked better than Mailloux.
On it’s face the trade works for the Habs because of the youth and strength of the prospect pool, many who will no longer be waiver exempt at the end of this year.
It works for Anaheim because they are strong down the middle and their powerplay was the worst in the league.
No “winner” in my opinion, just two young teams dealing from positions of strength to fill holes.
Unlike many I’m not keen on trading Laine, I think he’ll have a huge year this season but getting McTavish sets the Habs up for a decade.
Ok. Thanks for the exchange.
If Roy is the smartest guy Bedard has played with and is kept by the Habs then let us hope he gets – and keeps – his ass in the saddle. I have heard that pace is is issue, which I understand to be not speed but commitment to hard work.
As for the RH D issue, I agree that having just two is sub optimal. My view is they will keep Matheson through the season and have him play RD on the top 4 as he did last year.
FYI, Hage won the Big 10 Rookie of the Year Award last season with 34 points in 33 games. That ain’t nothin’. He was one of only five 18-year-olds among the top 75 scorers in the NCAA.
Had a spit out your morning coffee after I read “ the Toronto Maple Leafs appear to have replaced the departed Mitch Marner with Nick Robertson”. LOL!!!
😂
Lol Ron. I paused there for a second or two myself before realizing that that was in reference to a roster spot and hardly statistical replacement.
While that ain’t gonna happen, I do think the collective potential is there to replace his 27g 75a 102pts season by extrapolating the possible production of 3 of the newcomers based upon their 82-game averages of last season’s production:
Macelli – 12g 15a 27pts; Joshua 10g 10a 20pts: Roy 7g 18a 35pts for a total of 29g 53a 82pts.
If Robertson can also reach his 82-game averages of 18g 8a 26pts – quite likely if he’s learned he needs to earn increased ice-time – that added in would give them an increase by committee, if you will, of 47g 61a 108pts spread out over the roster. At the same time I think it’s reasonable to expect Knies to continue to improve his production beyond his 29g 28a 57pts of last season.
On another topic, I see there has been another minor UFA signing – 30y/o 6′ 3″ 210lbs RW Hudson Fasching by Columbus – 1 year two-way @ $775,000. Last seson he played in 43 games with the NYI scoring 2g 2a 4pts.
Hey George the whole “by committee” is a sensible way to look at things but who ever makes up that committee, they should look to surpass his totals but what I find the real problem is who will eat up his ice time. like pts/60 or PK or PP or however you allocate the all situations player like Marner was. Replacing the points wont be easy but can be done but a good replacement for his ability on the PP and PK as well as when the team needs to shut things down or really push, if there’s no Marner, then who do you put in as an acceptable replacement? That’s the real rub.
Can’t argue against that, for sure. Sounds like they’re in for a lot of exhibition and early season game experimentation in that regard.
I would take skinner over any of the leafs goalies. Maybe there is a possible trade for stolarz. Also leafs should be in on mctavish. Not sure what they should offer. Maybe a pure hockey trade knies for mctavish.
Toronto wouldn’t trade Knies for Rantanen, so it’s really unlikely they’d trade Knies for Mctavish
I wouldn’t trade knies for Rantanen either. I don’t think you can have two wingers making 11.5M (Nylander) and 12.5M. If Rantanen was a centre, I would make that trade all day long. Considering mctavish is centre and looking at the same cap hit and upside as Knies, I take the centre.
Why can’t you have 2 wingers making that kind of coin. Marner and Nyland made it and it turned out the coin wasn’t the problem. Showing up was the problem. If McTavish was a RHC, he’d have more value. McTavish would still be a good fit in Toronto, but I wouldn’t give up Knies. Flat out Knies is a better player with a higher ceiling than McTavish and he took less money to stay in Toronto, that’s the type of players you need and want
Hey Jeff basically no one will argue that both 22-23 yr old players are special and most likely become very important players for their team and would be welcomed by anyone.
If the goal of the game is to outscore the opposition, then having as many of those types of players (who we already agreed they both are) isn’t a problem how much you pay them as long as you can make it fit under the cap.
My dream trade would be Mctavish for Kotkaniemi of the Hurricanes. Throw in a couple of prospects to sweeten the pot. Anything just move him for goodness sakes. He is so over paid and not worth a darn as a 2C. In my humble opinion this was one of the worst moves the hurricanes made when they took him from Montreal. Carolina has the cap space and he would be a huge upgrade.
When having a 3C that’s paid as a 2C is your biggest Cap problem, I’d say that life is pretty good.
snuffy53, while I can understand the sheer delight of Carolina fans at news of a deal like that, the mere proposal could cause the death of the San Jose GM through a laughing fit.
Kotkaniemi, a C who, through 476gp, has logged 3 seasons of 12g each, with a highwater mark of 18 2 seasons ago, and with career 82-game averages of 13g 20a 33pts, costing close to$5 mil per off the cap for 5 moire seasons, would be lucky to get them a 3rd round pick.
When it comes to McTavish, we’re talking about a 22 y/o who has already established career 82-game average of 22g 29a 51pts over 229gp.
Those sweeteners would have to be in the range of what it would cost for a high-level offer sheet, so they’d really be better off going that route in the first place.
Using Ottawa as an example for comparison purposes, an offer of Pinto, top-prospect Yakemchuk and a 1st round pick would be better … and still shrugged off with laughter.
Something else to consider when looking at the long drawn-out RFA negotiations – which are the root-cause of all the trade scenarios – is this passage from a Ryan Dixon column at Sportsnet
“It’s also worth noting that there’s a bit of a precedent for drawn-out negotiations in Anaheim between high draft picks like McTavish — the third-overall selection in 2021 — and GM Pat Verbeek. In the summer of 2023, both Jamie Drysdale (sixth overall, 2020) and Trevor Zegras (ninth overall, 2019) were unsigned RFAs heading into October before putting pen to paper with the club on three-year deals just before the season got going.”
You are correct it would be sheer delight but I enjoy dreaming. @(^_ ^)@
In fairness, the Canes did enjoy trolling the Habs for a while over that signing. There has to be some value in that… 🙂
Why in the world would you trade McTavish. Rugged with scoring touch. Unless a massive overpay can’t see it
I thinks it is a case of “ who’s the boss “ I am sure Verbeek as a player was treated a lot worse. They will settle before or shortly after the real puck drop. Likely skips camp which can
set-back a young player.
SilverSeven, that’s the ultimate drawback when it comes to RFA stand-offs, and it’s beginning to appear that there may be more of those this season than ever.
At this stage of their careers, these young players (and their agents) have to realize that the GM ultimately holds the upper hand, and while withholding their service at the start of a season may result in some inconvenience for the team’s overall performance, it can also provide an opportunity for someone else to step in and shine. Nor does it ever bode well for the player missing camp and th e opening weeks/months of the season.
Blocked by Go Daddy. After I posted my comment, I checked to see if my comment had made it online. Instead I had been blocked by Go Daddy. I could not access this site.
Now this morning I am allowed back in. I am a mosquito, a pest . To have someone block me like that is amazing.
Thank you all for your comments. I will take them under advisement. I still want to trade Skinner.
Alan, I don’t know why you were blocked by GoDaddy. It had nothing to do with me nor to do with your posts.
I had that happen last year and had to access this site via a VPN for a week. No problems since.