Culture
NHL trade deadline winners and losers: Mikko Rantanen, Brad Marchand reshape Stanley Cup race
What the 2025 NHL trade deadline lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality. After all, it’s not often we have a prolonged drama like the Mikko Rantanen saga, which took several twists and turns before ending deep in the heart of Texas. And the Panthers’ stunning acquisition of Brad Marchand is one of the great buzzer-beaters in deadline history.
GO DEEPER
NHL trade deadline: Grading every deal completed this trade season
Now that the dust has settled — and knowing full well that the true winners and losers won’t be known until mid-June — let’s take a look at who improved the most, who took the biggest chances and who fell flat on their face on deadline day.
Winner: Florida Panthers
Imagine going up against a line with both Brad Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk on it. Good luck with that. Panthers GM Bill Zito made the most of the cap space Tkachuk’s groin injury opened up, snagging Marchand at the very last minute after adding Seth Jones earlier in the week.
Marchand might not be the 100-point player he was six years ago, but he’s still an excellent all-around player and one of the game’s all-time great pests. You can count on The Rat being showered with fake rats after a big win in South Florida at some point this spring. Both Marchand and Tkachuk are hurt right now, but both are expected back for the postseason, which is all that matters in Florida. And while Jones was overpaid as the Blackhawks’ No. 1 defenseman, he can be an outstanding No. 3 in Florida (and potential No. 2 going forward as Aaron Ekblad hits unrestricted free agency this summer), and at a more manageable $7 million cap hit with Chicago retaining $2.5 million for the next five seasons.
Winner: Mikko Rantanen
Rantanen was a member of the Carolina Hurricanes for about six weeks. He spent his first week on the road. He spent the next two weeks with Team Finland in Montreal and Boston. He had all of six home games in Raleigh. It’s entirely reasonable that he wasn’t ready to commit the next eight years of his life to a franchise and a city he barely knows. And that he was pushing for a nine-figure deal, complicating matters further.
Then Rantanen went and signed an eight-year deal with Dallas, a team for which he’s never played, a city in which he’s never lived. And for $96 million, less than Carolina reportedly offered. As if there were any doubt that teams in tax-free states had an inherent advantage over the rest of the league.
Rantanen had total control of his situation, so he must be happy with the deal or it wouldn’t have happened. While it would have been fun to see what someone like Rantanen could have gotten on the open market — players like him so rarely get to that point — he’s joining one of the best and best-run teams in the league, and he’s earning generational wealth to do so. How could you look at that as anything but a win?
Winner: Dallas Stars
Jim Nill has painted himself into something of a corner, handing $96 million to Rantanen with Tyler Seguin coming off long-term injured reserve (LTIR) and Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley all due significant raises in the next two years. Then there’s captain Jamie Benn, who is a pending unrestricted free agent. Whatever. He’ll get to that eventually, and given Nill’s history, he’ll surely make it all work. What matters is that this is now the Stanley Cup favorite, the best team in the NHL. Getting Rantanen — at significantly less than he’d get on the open market — is a massive coup for the Stars. The NHL’s center of gravity continues to shift south.
Loser: Carolina Hurricanes
There’s no spinning this as a positive for the Hurricanes. GM Eric Tulsky did well enough to salvage something tangible out of it — and if you go all the way back to the initial deal with Colorado, it might even be a net gain — but it’s a bad beat all the same. The Hurricanes gave up a premium talent with another year on a team-friendly contract in Martin Necas to acquire Rantanen, got 13 measly games out of him (won only seven of them), and then flipped him to Dallas for Logan Stankoven and two late first-round picks. Stankoven is an exciting young player, but will he even be at Necas’ level, let alone Rantanen’s? The fact is, this might have been Carolina’s best chance to break through in a wide-open Eastern Conference. Instead, they’re further from contention than they’ve been in years.
The Hurricanes broke from team tradition last year by getting Jake Guentzel as a rental, only to watch him leave for Tampa (another team in a tax-free state!). That apparently spooked Carolina enough that Rantanen’s ambivalence about Raleigh as a long-term home prompted this rather drastic course of action. It’s a shame. Rantanen’s production was subpar (six points in 13 games), but he was generating a massive amount of scoring chances. The goals were going to come, and Rantanen is a monster in the playoffs. Carolina could have gone for it, consequences be damned. Instead, the Hurricanes hedged and were left trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Winner: Mitch Marner
With Rantanen off the board, guess who’s the belle of the ball this summer in free agency? Get that bag, Mitch.
Winner: Colorado Avalanche
The trade deadline is typically an imperfect tool for filing holes, with teams scrambling and often settling to add something, anything, as the clock ticks down. There’s rarely a perfect fit out there for a team, and it’s even more rare for such a trade to happen. But Brock Nelson was the perfect fit for the Avalanche, giving them the second-line center they so clearly needed.
The price was high (a first-rounder and top prospect Calum Ritchie), and the Islanders can feel just as good about this deal as Colorado can. But the Avalanche can win the Stanley Cup this season. Nelson makes them that much better. Swapping Casey Mittelstadt for Charlie Coyle only helps. You won’t hear anyone complaining about the Avalanche’s lack of centers anymore.
Loser: Colorado Avalanche
Eight years, $96 million for Rantanen? That’s pretty much what the Avalanche reportedly offered him before they sent him to Carolina. There’s the tax-free aspect, obviously, but if Rantanen never wanted to leave and Colorado was willing to hit the same number, that initial trade to Carolina looks premature in hindsight.
Winnipeg made a tiny step forward today, adding sensible depth players in Brandon Tanev and Luke Schenn.
But the West shifted wildly under Winnipeg’s feet. A tiny step forward was a big step back. A week that began with the Jets as division favourites ends in disappointment.
— Murat Ates (@WPGMurat) March 7, 2025
Winner: Chicago Blackhawks
Trading Jones makes the Blackhawks worse; there’s no way around that fact. Yet again, it could get even worse before it gets better in Chicago. But Spencer Knight’s 41-save debut has Chicago fans feeling hope for the first time since the 2023 draft lottery, and it’s an undeniable victory for Kyle Davidson to only have to retain $2.5 million on Jones’ contract for the next five seasons.
With Jones forcing the issue and Chicago having no leverage, it seemed like a cap dump for futures with high retention was all the Blackhawks could hope for. Instead, they got a potential No. 1 goalie and a first-rounder, without an onerous retention. Unloading Petr Mrázek and landing a young, controllable, former first-rounder in Joe Veleno is a nice bonus that not only moves out a bad contract but averts an awkward three-goalie situation. Nice work by Davidson.
Loser: Chicago Blackhawks
Davidson, flush with cap space and desperate for a difference-maker up front, had his eye on Rantanen as an ideal linemate for Connor Bedard. Now that Rantanen is off the board, Davidson can only hope that Toronto doesn’t strike a deal with Marner — and that Marner’s up for a fixer-upper.
Winner: Tampa Bay Lightning
Some day, there will be a reckoning for Julien BriseBois and the Lightning, a day on which all their core players suddenly are tumbling down the aging curve and the cupboard is completely bare. But that day is not today.
Tampa has won 10 of its last 11 games and has muscled its way back into the true contender tier of the NHL. And when you have a chance to win, you go for it. BriseBois’ utter disregard for draft picks is almost comical at this point — Tampa has had one first-round pick in the last five drafts and has dealt away its 2025, 2026 and 2027 first-rounders (the last two with top-10 protection) — but it’s also absolutely the right attitude for a perennial contender.
Neither Yanni Gourde nor Oliver Bjorkstrand is a franchise-changing needle-mover, but the Lightning know as well as anybody that it’s those second-tier depth additions that often make the difference in the postseason.
Every hockey fan should want their team’s GM to think this way.
Loser: Buffalo Sabres
As they hurtle toward a 14th straight spring without a playoff appearance, the Sabres had to do something. And they did something. But they did something that doesn’t really change anything.
At best, swapping Dylan Cozens (and depth defenseman Dennis Gilbert) for Josh Norris (and depth defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker) is a wash. At worst, it’s selling low on a player with a very high ceiling. That the Sabres sent a second-rounder to Ottawa for the privilege is baffling.
Instead of getting aggressive and truly remaking a talented but continually underperforming roster by dealing away the likes of Jason Zucker or even Alex Tuch, the Sabres are stuck running in place. And that place is last.
They are in the same position after the trade deadline as they were before the trade deadline — lost.
Winner: Toronto Maple Leafs
The Leafs didn’t have the splashiest deadline — at one point in the day, while chaos swirled, you wanted to poke Brad Treliving with a stick and see if he was still awake. But Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo are sneaky good gets who make Toronto a better defensive team, first and foremost.
Laughton’s certainly an upgrade over Max Domi, who can shift to the wing. With the Flyers retaining half of Laughton’s salary, the Leafs get a reliable two-way, third-line center for two playoff runs at just a $1.5 million cap hit. And it didn’t cost them any of their top prospects or young players. Even the 2027 first-rounder is top-10 protected.
Laughton is good on the ice and great in the room. It’s not the most exciting move, but for a team that’s been done in by its lack of forward depth in previous postseasons, it’s a savvy one.
Loser: Vancouver Canucks
It sounds like there could be progress toward a Brock Boeser extension, but what are these Canucks? They’re not going for it, having traded J.T. Miller away earlier in the season and Carson Soucy to the Rangers for a third-rounder at the deadline. They’re not retooling, having held on to Boeser and Elias Pettersson. Their captain and best player is hurt, they’re on the periphery of the playoffs, and they seem to be going nowhere slowly.
Winner: San Jose Sharks
For absolutely nothing, Sharks GM Mike Grier got 50 solid games from Jake Walman, a second-round pick (from Detroit as a cap-dump sweetener last summer) and a first-round pick (from Edmonton for Walman on Thursday). Steve Yzerman could never.
Loser: Edmonton Oilers
Dallas went out and added the best player available in Rantanen and locked him up long-term. Colorado went out and added the top rental available in Nelson. Edmonton added a solid second-pair defenseman in Walman and a third-line forward in Trent Frederic. If this is an arms race, Edmonton is losing. The Oilers are the defending conference champion and were the preseason favorites to win it all. Now, they look like the fifth-best team in the West. It’s foolish to ever doubt Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, but the Oilers have an uphill climb to get back to the Final.
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Bill Wippert, Mike Stobe, Josh Lavellee / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002
Trump floats sending federal agents to San Francisco to tackle crime
Dallas ISD will offer free pre-K starting next school year
Norwegian Cruise Line offers a first look at Luna, new cruise ship setting sail from PortMiami – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale
Live: CPAC 2026 Day 2
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Live: CPAC 2026 Day 2
Video: Will ICE Change Under Its New Leader?
DHS shutdown breakthrough comes at cost for Republicans as funding fights nears end
Rubio joins crucial G7 talks as Iran war set to dominate second day
A surprise resignation could open the door for an independent to win a Montana Senate seat
-
Detroit, MI1 week agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Science1 week agoHow a Melting Glacier in Antarctica Could Affect Tens of Millions Around the Globe
-
Science1 week agoI had to man up and get a mammogram
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Sports6 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
New Mexico5 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Business1 week agoDisney’s new CEO says his focus is on storytelling and creativity
-
Technology5 days agoYouTube job scam text: How to spot it fast