If the NHL ever had an award for bounce-back player of the year, Rickard Rakell would have been squarely in the mix last season.
The Penguins’ star winger was coming off a disastrous 2023-24 campaign, which included an ice-cold start and an injury that reflected in his year-end totals. That had Rakell viewed as a bad contract entering 2024-25, but he changed the narrative in a hurry.
One year later, the Swede put together the best season of his career, tallying 70 points (35 goals, 35 assists) in 81 games, catching the attention of the rest of the league.
With Kyle Dubas rebuilding things his way in Pittsburgh, veterans like Rakell have been the subject of trade talks for months. That won’t stop anytime soon, and analyst Josh Wegman of The Score has a proposition that would send him to Vancouver in a deal with the Canucks.
Canucks receive: Rickard Rakell
Penguins receive: Nils Hoglander, Kirill Kudryavtsev, 2026 first-round pick (top-10 protected)
“Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford wasn’t in Pittsburgh when the team added Rakell, but general manager Patrik Allvin was still with the Penguins organization at the time, so there’s some familiarity there. While he’s not the center the Canucks have been searching for, adding a legitimate top-six winger to a forward group that severely lacks high-end talent outside of Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser would be a good start. Rakell, 32, is a physical two-way winger under contract for three more years with a $5-million cap hit. He’d be a massive upgrade over Hoglander, who scored just eight goals last year and is under contract for three more years at $3 million annually,” Wegman wrote.
“Hoglander is still just 24 years old and one season removed from a 24-goal campaign. Although that season could prove to be an outlier in his career, Hoglander is the type of young player the Penguins should be willing to take a gamble on. Maybe he could regain his prior form playing alongside Crosby or Malkin? Kudryavtsev, meanwhile, is a developmental success story for the Canucks, cracking the NHL last year despite being a seventh-round pick in 2022. The 5-foot-11 defenseman also played his junior hockey with the Soo Greyhounds, a program Dubas has ties to,” Wegman added.
As Wegman referred to, the 32-year-old has three years remaining on the six-year, $30 million extension he signed with the Penguins back in 2022.
Dubas could look to sell high on Rakell
Another full season on a line with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust could see Rickard Rakell pile up just as good, if not better, numbers in 2025-26.
However, that’s easier said than done, and his value might not get any higher than it currently is, which puts Kyle Dubas in a precarious situation. You would think selling high on a veteran makes perfect sense, given the direction in Pittsburgh, yet last year’s trade deadline and this offseason so far haven’t resulted in anything.
Either way, Rickard Rakell will remain atop trade bait boards until he’s inevitably moved, and if things go according to plan, the Penguins should receive a very strong package in return.
