Shocking Details of Failed Three-Way Trade Involving Marner, Rantanen, and Vegas Leak Publicly

This past season was absolutely wild for player movement in the National Hockey League, with star forward Mikko Rantanen being traded not once, but twice before ending up with the Dallas Stars, with plenty of other deals going down too.

Following that deal, we heard rumblings of a one-for-one trade that involved Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner, who used his no-trade clause to turn that down as he had no interest in moving to Carolina in his final year in Toronto.

Now, reports from James Mirtle reveal a much bigger deal that almost came to fruition, as he notes that a three team deal almost came together involving Carolina, Toronto and Vegas.

That deal would have seen Rantanen land in Toronto and Marner land in Vegas, and while it's unclear what Carolina would have got in the deal, the 'Canes and Golden Knights reportedly couldn't find the right set of assets to part ways with to make the deal happen.

It's hard to judge who would have won this hypothetical deal without knowing the other pieces involved, but perhaps if Toronto landed Rantanen, the post-season would have turned out different for them, especially the way that he played in the Stars first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche.

On paper though, this would have been one of the biggest deals in NHL history, but now, Marner is set to be a free agent and sign wherever he wants, with Vegas reportedly in play for the veteran star, and after Carolina moved Rantanen to Dallas in exchange for Logan Stankoven and draft capital, it appears that they found a deal just as good as this one.