Key Takeaways
- The Detroit Red Wings are one team showing serious interest in a trade for Anaheim Ducks star Mason McTavish, sources tell RG.
- There's a history between GMs Steve Yzerman and Pat Verbeek, which could help facilitate a deal.
- McTavish has found his name in the rumor mill all offseason, with the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes also “keeping tabs” on him.
Mason McTavish #23 of the Anaheim Ducks (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The dog days of the 2025 NHL offseason are officially in session, but as the calendar turned to August, speculation surrounding Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish remained.
“I think there’s a better chance now that the Ducks keep him, but teams are still trying to get him from the Ducks and wondering where this is going, and it’s still in a circling pattern,” an NHL Executive source told RG on Tuesday night.
“I’ve heard the Canadiens and Hurricanes have been keeping tabs, but one team I keep hearing that has continued to show strong interest is the Detroit Red Wings. Obviously there’s a history there with Pat [Verbeek] and Steve [Yzerman], and I really think Steve sees McTavish as a player that would clearly change the whole dynamic of his team up the middle there.”
After playing together with the Red Wings from 1999-2001, Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman and Ducks GM Pat Verbeek worked together in hockey operations for Detroit from 2006-2010, with Yzerman serving as Vice President of Hockey Operations and Verbeek as a pro scout. When Yzerman left Detroit to become the general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2010, he brought Verbeek with him and made him the Director of Pro scouting for two seasons, and then the Assistant GM and Director of Player Personnel.
Yzerman and Verbeek went on to help build the Lightning into a perennial Stanley Cup contender, but they both returned to Detroit in 2019, with Yzerman becoming the new GM and Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Red Wings, and Verbeek assuming the role of Assistant GM and GM of the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL), until he was hired as the general manager of the Ducks in 2022.
Mason McTavish has arguably been the most bantered-about player in NHL trade chatter this offseason. The third overall pick from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft is coming out of a three-year, $2.68 million ($894K AAV), entry-level contract. Not only has there been plenty of NHL trade speculation around the 22-year-old, 6-foot-1, 218-pound pivot, but seemingly the whole hockey world was anticipating some team to throw an offer sheet at McTavish.
However, as one NHL player agent recently pointed out to RG, with the Ducks having $20.5 million in cap space, not many NHL owners were likely to sign off on their General Managers throwing down the NHL offer sheet gauntlet:
“I think that’s a huge piece of it, yes,” the agent told RG recently. “When you go to your owner and you say, ‘Hey, I want to do this, and I think if I load it up front with signing bonuses, and let’s double what I think they’re willing to offer,’ I think that’s a ballsy thing for the GM to say to his owner because if that cap space like Anaheim has exists, then the owner’s going to say ‘OK, well then you better be sure they’re not going to just laugh and match it because if they match it, then we look like complete idiots and all we did was just increase the market for no reason.’
But, like I said, even if they don’t match, I think the owners still get pissed at each other, and no one wants that. I’m not obviously privy to it, so this is just my guess from my position, but I think there’s still that ‘Old Boys' network going on. Again, I’m not on that side of it, but if this isn’t the case, why haven’t we seen any offer sheets yet?”
That being said, McTavish remains a trade target, but according to one NHL Executive source who has been involved in some trade talks on McTavish, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek continues to make it clear that their main priority is still to sign McTavish.
“Unless you’re willing to get creative and knock Pat’s socks off with a monster offer, I don’t see him getting traded at this point,” the source told RG recently. “A right-shot, top-four and future top-pairing defenseman would be the starting point from what I know. I don’t see the Wings moving Moritz Seider, so you’re likely talking Axel Sandin-Pellikka.”
Sandin-Pellikka, 20, was drafted 17th overall at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and is entering the first season of his three-year, $2.75 ($918K AAV) entry-level contract. After signing last spring, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound defenseman had one assist in two games for the Grand Rapids Griffins.
