The NHL world got rocked on Friday evening with a bombshell report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman: the league’s reigning MVP, Nikita Kucherov, has informed the Tampa Bay Lightning that he will not be re-signing with them this offseason and has requested a trade.This is just another monster piece of news that comes hardly a week after 2025 Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck had his trade request fulfilled and was shipped to the New Jersey Devils, and just days after Dylan Larkin walked away from the Detroit Red Wings.

This seems obvious, but any team with any sort of realistic shot at competing for a Stanley Cup this season should be salivating at the opportunity to acquire Kucherov, who has produced at least 121 points in each of the last three seasons.

He is one of the most impactful players in the entire NHL and one of the most dominant players of his generation, and now, it sounds like he’s going to be moved.

Unlike the situations with Hellebuyck and Larkin, Kucherov does not have a full no-trade clause. Instead, he has a ten-team-approved trade list, so there is the potential that the Lightning could create quite the bidding war for the 33-year-old.

One way that Kucherov could create some leverage when it comes to his next contract. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, and we could see this play out in a way similar to how the Mikko Rantanen situation played out a few years ago when he was dealt from Carolina to Dallas.

Sure, he didn’t have full trade protection, but if a team acquiring him is going to give up the kind of haul that is expected when you want to acquire a player of his calibre, I would imagine that they’d want to have the ability to sign him to an extension.

Kucherov could play hardball and say that there is an even more select number of teams that he would be willing to sign an extension with.

Now, naturally, I think every Oilers fan heard this news and had the same reaction that roughly a dozen other fan bases had: could we get him?

My first reaction is to say no.

There will be a long line of teams looking to get their hands on Kucherov, and most of those teams will have better assets to offer the Lightning… and it’s not even particularly close.

If Utah wanted to make this move, they have a handful of really good young NHLers who would probably interest Tampa Bay, and they have A+ level young prospects like Tij Iginla and Caleb Desnoyers.

Montreal is another team that would be able to put together the kind of offer that the Oilers wouldn’t be able to match. Our Daily Faceoff colleague Jeff Marek has speculated in the past that Kucherov would have interest in playing for the Canadiens.

If this is going to be a true bidding war among the ten teams on Kucherov’s list, then even if the Oilers are a team that he would consider joining, there is just no way that general manager Stan Bowman could put together a competitive offer.

So what would be a path to the Oilers getting Kucherov?

I can only really think of two scenarios where the Oilers have a shot at this: one would be if Kucherov was dead set on joining forces with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and forced his way to Edmonton. That obviously seems highly, highly unlikely considering there are plenty of other Cup contenders out there.

The other option would be if Kucherov was determined to test the open market on July 1 and made it known that whatever team acquired him would be doing so knowing that he is a pure rental.

If that was the case, then maybe an offer built around Matt Savoie and however many first-round picks that the Tampa Bay Lightning want would be enough for the Oilers to put together a competitive offer.

Even as I type that out, though, there’s just no way that it would be enough.

The Oilers don’t have a lot of talent that a team like Tampa Bay, which we’re assuming wants to stay competitive, would be interested in.

Most of Edmonton’s forwards have trade protection, and even if they included someone like Vasiliy Podkolzin in the deal, another team would step up and beat a package that’s built around Savoie, Podkolzin and a handful of first-round picks.

The idea of Kucherov joining the Oilers and creating some sort of a super team is obviously a very exciting thought, but it’s definitely more of a dream than something that could happen in reality.

If Kucherov were to make it to July 1, then I think the conversation becomes a lot more interesting, but for now, I think teams like Montreal, Utah, and all the other usual suspects we’ve heard connected to these potential massive deals are far more likely landing spots for the soon-to-be former Lightning star.

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