It’s been a week and the shock of the Nikita Kucherov news still hasn’t worn off. That’s probably because reigning Hart Trophy winners don’t become available every day and if you believe GM Julien BriseBois, Kucherov isn’t actually on the market right now. The Tampa Bay Lightning general manager has indicated he has no plans to trade his disgruntled star, but how long he maintains that stance is another matter.
If Kucherov is still unsigned leading up to the deadline, BriseBois is going to have a difficult decision on his hands. He can try to trade him to get assets back in return, or risk losing him for nothing in the summer. If BriseBois does decide to explore a trade, there are 10 teams Kucherov is willing to accept a trade to, and we don’t know who they are. That makes forecasting where Kucherov may end up a very difficult task.
Still, Kucherov is eight months away from being an unrestricted free agent and he can then choose wherever he wants to go. That means, at least theoretically, every team could be in play when it comes to securing Kucherov, including the Lightning. BriseBois can use this time to try and smooth things over with Kucherov in hopes of keeping him in the fold. If that doesn’t happen, though, you can be sure 31 other teams will be preparing their best pitch to land the two-time Stanley Cup champion.
Let’s look at four of the most interesting fits for Kucherov, should he become available.
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The Hurricanes are already a scary matchup right now for anyone in the NHL, but they’d be downright frightening if they were able to secure Kucherov. Despite coming off a Stanley Cup, the Canes are in a very good cap situation and could easily fit Kucherov in via trade or signing next summer. All their key players are locked up long term and no one significant is coming up for a big contract extension. Carolina will have even more space come the summer and could easily extend Kucherov at a big number. The Hurricanes don’t have a $10 million player on their roster, which gives them a great opportunity to hand out a massive deal in this new financial world.
We also know the Canes have been searching for a superstar for quite some time. They traded for Jake Guentzel a few years ago and couldn’t re-sign him. Same goes for Mikko Rantanen, who had an even shorter stay with the organization. Kucherov is at a level above those two and he would instantly take arguably the league’s best team to even greater heights. Carolina is so balanced it is still thriving with William Carrier as a top-line winger, so Kucherov would be a massive upgrade in that department and make the team almost unstoppable.
The thing working against Carolina is that we’ve heard reports that Kucherov would like to play with another superstar and the Canes don’t really have one. Sebastian Aho, Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrei Svechnikov and others are great players, but it would be a stretch to call any of them true superstars. That said, the Hurricanes run like a machine under Rod Brind’Amour and he leads a team full of players with great hockey IQ, which should be a major selling point for Kucherov.
Kucherov’s situation isn’t the same as Brady Tkachuk’s, Connor Hellebuyck’s or Dylan Larkin’s, as it sounds like he’d be willing to go to a couple of places in Canada. That includes Montreal, and we know how aggressive the Canadiens have been trying to land a difference-maker up front. The Canadiens tried to trade for Matthew Knies at last year’s deadline and recently pushed for Kirill Marchenko as well. Kucherov is in another stratosphere compared to those players.
Much like Carolina, Montreal has its core locked up and is well positioned to take a run at someone like Kucherov, whether that’s via trade or in free agency. The Canadiens are also stocked full of young talent and should be set up with a competitive window that’s going to be wide open for the foreseeable future. None of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson are over 27 years of age. That doesn’t even include Michael Hage, who is starring at the University of Michigan right now and will likely soon be the team’s No. 2 centre behind Suzuki. This roster should be very attractive to Kucherov in the sense that he should be reasonably confident he could contend for a Cup in Montreal for the remainder of his career.
Kucherov could also give the Canadiens a huge lift where they need it most. Montreal is currently ranked 30th on the man advantage at just 13 per cent heading into Thursday night and Kucherov is arguably one of the best power-play players of all time. Canadiens fans would surely welcome the sight of Kucherov finding Cole Caufield for one-timers on the power play for the next several years.
If Kucherov wants to play with a true superstar, the Sharks have one to offer. Macklin Celebrini finished just 15 points behind Kucherov last season and the duo could be the most dangerous in hockey if they were united in San Jose.
The Sharks have been rebuilding for several years but have accumulated a bunch of young talent and it feels inevitable that they are eventually going to become a Western Conference power sooner rather than later. In addition to Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson and Yaroslav Askarov give San Jose some nice building blocks to go along with its three first-round picks from the 2026 draft in Ivar Stenberg, Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin. Maybe the Sharks aren’t as close to contending as some of the other teams on this list, though they can certainly offer Kucherov a roster of teammates with maybe more potential than anyone in the NHL.
A big selling point for Kucherov should also be that the Sharks play in the Pacific Division. It’s probably the weakest in hockey right now and doesn’t figure to get much better in the next couple of years. Vancouver and Calgary are rebuilding, Los Angeles looks like it’s taking a step back, and Seattle’s strong start has been due to a lot of smoke and mirrors based on its underlying numbers. The path to a Stanley Cup should be much less arduous than what Kucherov is used to in the Atlantic.
As Alexander Ovechkin skates off into the sunset after this season, it would be great for the Capitals if they could replace him with Kucherov. For the past two decades, the Caps have relied on Ovechkin’s booming shot to give them a potent weapon on the power play, and although Kucherov brings a different skill set, he could help Washington return to one of the league’s best on the man advantage. Right-handed shots like Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou and Ryan Leonard would surely have no problem taking over for Ovechkin to receive one-timers from Kucherov.
Washington loaded up this off-season and doesn’t have as much cap space as the other three teams on this list, but the Capitals would likely move out a player or two if it meant securing Kucherov. The Caps have built one of the deepest and biggest forward groups in the league, creating a unit with a unique blend of size and physicality. Players like Tom Wilson, Boone Jenner and the Protas brothers can create time and space for their teammates with their physical play, two things that we know Kucherov can exploit better than just about anyone.
Landing Kucherov could very well switch the balance of power in the Metropolitan Division towards the Capitals as well, who have made it past the first round just once since 2021. The Hurricanes look like they’re going to be dominant for a long time, but if Kucherov joins the Capitals, it would more than level the playing field.
