Five NHL players who’d benefit from change-of-scenery trades this offseason

May 22, 2025, 11:00 EDT

Mat Barzal, Elias Pettersson, Morgan Rielly (Imagn Images)

Credit: Imagn Images

Are you ready for the NHL offseason? It should rank among the most interesting in years. Historically, significant changes in the salary cap have led to GMs opening their wallets and shaking up their rosters more than usual. With the cap jumping from $88 million to $95.5 million, not only should we see some lucrative UFA contracts handed out, but some high-profile names could also change teams via trade.

Among the latter group: which players could significantly benefit from, and correct course on their careers with, change-of-scenery trades? Consider these five candidates, listed alphabetically.

Mathew Barzal, C, New York Islanders

Barzal’s prime is ticking away. His Isles haven’t advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2020-21. He has spun his wheels in recent years, whether it’s because the team played a conservative style, he was banged up, or both. He’s a supremely gifted skater and puckhandler, and it feels like he’s capable of reaching a much higher ceiling if placed in a situation that lets him play a looser style. At 27, he could still produce like a star if given a chance to reset. And a Barzal trade would make plenty of sense right now for the Isles, too. When Lou Lamoriello was in charge as GM, he was hesitant to break up his core players, clinging to mediocrity, but that all changed this season. First, Lamoriello sold off long-standing veteran Brock Nelson at the Trade Deadline and landed a high-end prospect in Cal Ritchie. Next, the Isles and Lamoriello parted ways. Then they won the No. 1 overall pick in the Draft Lottery. They have a tremendous opportunity to rebuild the right way. Imagine the prospect haul they could get for Barzal, who has lots of good hockey left at 27 and whose $9.15 million AAV is palatable with a rising cap. A lot of what they do will depend on who takes over as their next GM, of course.

Elias Pettersson, C, Vancouver Canucks

Has any player in any market needed more of a fresh start in recent memory than Pettersson? Okay, maybe J.T. Miller did. But trading him didn’t seem to fix whatever was holding back Pettersson, whose 102-point season of 2022-23 seems like a lifetime ago. It feels like the pressure of a hockey-mad Canadian market has gotten to Pettersson, who has never seemed particularly comfortable with the attention. He’s still just 26 and, when healthy, brings a superstar-caliber set of tools. It wouldn’t be remotely surprising to see him become an elite player again, but it may not happen unless he changes addresses. Would a hockey trade involving Pettersson and B.C. native Barzal make sense?

Morgan Rielly, D, Toronto Maple Leafs

Only three defensemen have played more games in a Leaf jersey than Rielly. He’s been engrained in the core group for more than a decade now and has doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on his desire to stay and keep trying to win the Stanley Cup. But he looked visibly slower during the 2024-25 playoff run, particularly in the second round vs. the Florida Panthers, and doesn’t appear up to being Toronto’s No. 1 puck-moving defenseman anymore. He’s still owed $7.5 million annually for another five seasons. The argument for trading him makes sense from Toronto’s side. But it could work out for Rielly and a new team, too, if he was willing to waive his no-movement clause. He’s lost a step but could still help a weaker team’s power play or middle pair if he played reduced minutes. Though Rielly has always insisted he likes competing in a pressure-packed market, his recent play suggests otherwise, and maybe he’d benefit from playing somewhere offering more anonymity. The Leafs would have to weigh the cost of retaining some salary on a Rielly trade vs. buying him out.

Marco Rossi, C, Minnesota Wild

I can’t say I understand anything that has transpired between Rossi and the Wild since he broke in as a full-time NHLer. Overcoming some frightening COVID-related health scares at the start of his career, he finally stuck with Minnesota for good and scored 21 goals last year during an impressive rookie season that placed him sixth in the Calder Trophy vote. Yet trade rumors floated around him last summer. This year, he put up 60 points as a sophomore, spending much of the season as Minnesota’s first-line center. The reward for that: a demotion to the fourth line during the playoffs and more trade rumors heading into his restricted free agency. Rossi was a top-end prospect who has shown some intriguing two-way ability and is improving, yet he reportedly rejected a five-year, $25-million offer earlier this season and there was a sense he and the team weren’t budging on their positions. If there’s that big a chasm between the Wild and Rossi’s valuation of him, a trade would work. It shouldn’t be a hard deal for GM Bill Guerin to make, either, as plenty of teams could use an ascending center like Rossi and thus would also likely offer Minnesota something appealing for him. Rossi feels like a player who could blossom into a strong second-line center and flirt with point-per-game production for years to come on a new team.

Trevor Zegras, C, Anaheim Ducks

It feels like this deal should’ve happened a while ago. Zegras hasn’t lived up to the superstar pedigree he showed as a junior-aged player, and his commitment to defense and winning hockey has been called into question by old-school thinkers who don’t like his flashiness. But his sublime puckhandling talent remains undeniable, he’s still just 24, and he could explode if placed in the right situation. The Ducks would be selling low if they traded him this offseason, but the fact he’s owed a reasonable $5.75 million for just one more season before restricted free agency is a selling point that offsets his depressed recent production.

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