Way-Too-Early Predictions for the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline

Have you been having withdrawal symptoms since the NHL trade deadline came and went? Because we have in our way and the AHL trade deadline passing on Friday afternoon didn't give us the kind of excitement or action we were hoping for, so we're looking ahead. Like really far ahead into the future to the 2025 NHL trade deadline.

We know there is a lot of hockey to play between then and now and there are just about as many transactions to come at the NHL draft in Las Vegas and again with free agency starting on July 1, but what we do know, thanks to CapFriendly.com, is which players will be heading towards free agency come July 1, 2025. We've also got our own ideas about some teams that might be thinking differently by then.

We've picked out a few ideas we're spit-balling already just about a year in advance. We're going to have some fun with this one and if you take anything here for gospel…well, you can do that if you want, we're not your parents. But, let's have a good time and try to line things up with some hair-brained ideas mixed with some logic.

There's nothing we love more here than trying to make a reunion happen through the sheer power of trying to speak (or write) it into existence. One reunion that would be particularly poetic would be to have Taylor Hall return to Edmonton.

Hall is set to be a free agent again next summer and right now it's hard to imagine that the Chicago Blackhawks will be playoff contenders. They're going to be better (at least they should be) but they'll likely still be in a position to be sellers. That's where the Oilers come into the picture.

The Oilers will be Stanley Cup contenders again next year and always in a position to add at the deadline. They'll also be in the funny place where they'll either need to or just have signed Leon Draisaitl to a massive extension and adding Hall at the deadline would make sense because the cost to get him wouldn't be sky-high.

Add in the fun of seeing Hall rejoin the Oilers while they're an established playoff team with Stanley Cup hopes (or even looking to repeat) is enough drama to keep everyone tickled at the deadline.

It's not just reunions we're suckers for, but also homecomings. Brock Boeser returning to Minnesota would be the kind of heartwarming story that even the coldest person could feel good about.

Boeser is from Minnesota and played college hockey at North Dakota, but he's been with the Canucks since he was drafted in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft. He's been a great player in Vancouver, lighting the nets on fire this season with 35 goals and counting this year.

But the Canucks just gave Elias Pettersson a boatload of money on his contract extension and while they're not looking at being constrained by the salary cap so much in years to come according to Cap Friendly, seeing Boeser return to Minnesota would be such a nice feel-good story.

We think back to when Brock lost his father, Duke, in 2021 and everything he went through in his life and how important he was to Brock and the rest of the Boeser family, and we can't help but think of how wonderful it would be to see him go home and play in front of family and friends every day with the Wild. Maybe that's a pipe dream or maybe it's just wanting to see something wonderful happen, but it would be special to see.

That said, if the Canucks wanted to make Boeser a Canuck for life, we'd understand them doing that, too.

It was rather interesting that this idea started to make the rounds on social media during the trade deadline this year because the Penguins just acquired Erik Karlsson over the summer to try and kick their offense into high-gear and make teams fear them by running a horde of future hall of famers out there every night.

Instead, we've watched a Penguins team that's been brutally inconsistent night in and night out yet still harbors thoughts of the postseason because the wild card race in the Eastern Conference is suddenly more like the Royal Rumble.

The problem for the Penguins is they're not getting any younger and for an already old team that's a very bad thing. They've also got Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang whom they're almost certainly never letting go unless they say they want to go elsewhere. That leaves Karlsson and his former team, the Ottawa Senators, there for a potential reunion to be had.

Ottawa is deeply desperate to get back to the playoffs and they've got a core of young players ready to make that jump sooner than later and after a disappointing season this year, if they're close to or in a playoff spot a year from now, they'll want to do whatever they can to make that happen.

Bringing back one of the best players in franchise history to rejoin their always-in-need blue line would make a lot of sense. It would be a salve for old wounds from trading him years ago and allow him the chance to bring the team back to where they last were when he was last there.

We're not specifically picking on the Ottawa Senators today, but they do have some of the more interesting ideas to attach to them because they'll be even more desperate to get to the playoffs after falling short this season.

A year ago when they added Jakob Chychrun from Arizona, one of the more daunting things about doing so was how he was going to be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2025 and the chances he'd go elsewhere, no matter who he was traded to, seemed high. After a couple of playoffs-free seasons in Ottawa you'd have to think that possibility becomes even more likely.

But Ottawa knows they're better with him than they are without him and the best thing to do is to sign him long-term and take the time needed to try and make that happen. If that hasn't happened by the time the deadline rolls around next year, however, GM Steve Staios will have to decide if keeping him and going for broke for the playoffs or protecting the team and dealing him for players and/or picks is the best thing to do.

It's an unenviable position to be in, but one the Senators will need to be prepared for if negotiations don't go well.

We realize it probably looks like we're trying to will the Nashville Predators into trading their No. 1 goalie Juuse Saros to anyone in the NHL in need of a goalie, but we promise that's not the case. But the situation in Nashville with Saros and how he's due to be a free agent in the summer of 2025 and how Yaroslav Askarov is on the verge of, not just getting to the NHL, but potentially taking the league by storm is captivating from afar.

What's more interesting is that the Predators have been down this road once before with franchise legend Pekka Rinne and Saros while Rinne's career wound down and Saros was ready to ascend into the No. 1 job himself. Nashville, of course, gave Rinne all the time in the world to stay there and try to win them a Stanley Cup while Saros was his dutiful and outstanding backup.

But Saros isn't remotely close to retirement and Askarov is in his second season with Milwaukee in the AHL and having yet another outstanding year. His time to become Saros' backup is likely coming next season and that's when the clock really begins on when he eventually takes the starting job.

If Nashville signs Saros to an extension, that delays Askarov's chances to become the No. 1 in Nashville for seasons to come and we can't imagine that would be a popular idea for him or his agent. We also can't imagine that Predators GM Barry Trotz would be too keen on dealing the No. 11 pick from the 2020 draft either.

Without a doubt the Preds could get a whopper of a return for Saros and there's also no way they'd risk seeing him walk away for nothing either.