The New York Rangers and the Anaheim Ducks have moved into advanced discussions on a trade for Mason McTavish, a sign that one of the NHL’s most watched young forwards is suddenly in the middle of a major summer move. The deal is not done, but the talks are active enough to put both teams and McTavish on notice.
That is why the name is drawing searches now. McTavish, 23, was the third overall pick and just finished a 2024-25 campaign in which he posted 41 points, including 17 goals and 24 assists, both career highs. For a Rangers team that entered the summer expecting to be aggressive, a player with that age and production profile is the kind of target that can shift a roster. Recent reporting from Frank Seravalli had already pointed to the Rangers as a club heavily involved in talks, and now the conversations have reportedly advanced beyond simple checking in.
The appeal is easy to see. The Rangers have already watched several desirable trade targets come off the board, and the free agent class does not look strong enough to solve their problem on its own. That leaves the trade market as the clearest path if they want to improve quickly. McTavish fits the window: young, productive and still not far from the top of his draft class, with enough runway left to matter for years rather than months.
But the one part nobody has answered is the one that usually decides whether a deal lives or dies. The Ducks have not said what they would need back to part with McTavish, and that missing piece matters because advanced talks do not mean a completed trade. They only mean the two sides have gotten far enough to know the price will have to be real. That is also why interest around the player is building alongside earlier chatter, including the kind of trade speculation that has already followed him in recent days.
For now, the story is not that McTavish is gone. It is that the Rangers and the Ducks are talking seriously enough that a move is no longer a distant idea. The next step belongs to the market: either the asking price gets matched, or one of the NHL’s most closely watched trade discussions stops just short of the finish line.
