Not a lot of players were better than Mason McTavish in the back half of the
2024-25 NHL season.

The third-year centre found his stride as an NHLer, recording 33 points in 36 games between Jan. 21 and April 16 for the Anaheim Ducks.

Those numbers project to a 75-point pace over an 82-game season and McTavish’s 27 even-strength points during that span were bested by only 14 guys in the entire league.

No wonder we’re speculating about the future of this player when — at least for now — there’s probably not that much to talk about.

McTavish, of course, is a restricted free agent and — at this point in the off-season — that fact alone is enough to generate at least a ripple or two in the rumour mill, especially when the NHL transaction waters are so disturbingly still in the dead of summer.

It’s also worth noting that there’s a bit of a precedent for drawn-out negotiations in Anaheim between high draft picks like McTavish — the third-overall selection in 2021 — and GM Pat Verbeek. In the summer of 2023, both Jamie Drysdale (sixth overall, 2020) and Trevor Zegras (ninth overall, 2019) were unsigned RFAs heading into October before putting pen to paper with the club on three-year deals just before the season got going.

While numerous considerations make McTavish’s situation separate from that of Zegras and Drysdale, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the latter two players were ultimately traded away by Verbeek.

The other way you can tilt this situation is to examine the Ducks’ roster and see how — if it could get the right piece in return — Anaheim might be the rare squad that would consider moving a 22-year-old, top-six pivot with untapped potential.

The Ducks do have Leo Carlsson in the fold, and, good as McTavish is, the
1C job is probably Carlsson’s in the long run. They also signed Mikael Granlund to a three-year UFA contract in July, and the veteran Finn could surely hold down the second-line centre job for a couple of years. That might be enough time for hulking Roger McQueen — whom Anaheim took 10th overall at the NHL draft in June — to work his way into the job.

Scrape it all together, and you can understand why there’s at least some talk of McTavish moving. What really drives the discussion is the fact that McTavish is precisely the kind of player a large number of teams would love to get their mitts on if the situation went from simmer to boil.

Which teams would make the best fits if there were a deal to be made?

There’s a blatant connection here, given Verbeek worked under Detroit boss Steve Yzerman for years, both in the Motor City and before that, with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Red Wings are looking to push forward as they attempt to end a playoff drought that’s creeping up to 10 years.

Marco Kasper had a strong, 19-goal rookie season, but you could definitely see Detroit wanting to beef up down the middle behind the captain and No. 1 pivot Dylan Larkin.

By all rights, you’d expect Anaheim to be targeting a return that helps the club right now as the Ducks try to move up into the Western Conference playoffs under first-year Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville.

Still, Anaheim might think long and hard about a piece like defenceman Axel Sandin Pellikka, if the Wings were willing to deal him. The 17th overall pick from 2023 might be ready to push for an NHL job following two strong years in Sweden’s top league. He’s not big, but Sandin Pellikka comes in the coveted right-shot package, which offers a nice counterbalance to the young lefties Anaheim already has in Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger.

The Canes, who are aggressively trying to get over the playoff hump, are still crying out for a 2C to play behind Sebastian Aho. What an off-season it would be for Carolina if it landed one of the top UFAs in Nikolaj Ehlers, defenceman K’Andre Miller, as well as a young, burgeoning centre like McTavish.

Carolina — even after its big moves — still has $10 million in cap space available for next year with basically its entire roster already locked up. The issue for the Canes would be figuring out a package that could entice the Ducks.

A relatively short time ago, it felt like the Canucks were set down the middle with a duo of Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. Today, Miller plays for the New York Rangers and Pettersson is coming off about as disappointing a showing as you could imagine for someone in the first year of an eight-year contract that accounts for an $11.6 million cap hit.

Maybe a strong No. 2 pivot could help all involved?

It’s very easy to see why Vancouver would have a serious interest in McTavish, given the Canucks have Filip Chytil — acquired from New York in the Miller swap — slotted as the No. 2. If Vancouver could get Pettersson back on track, slide McTavish in as the second-line centre and bump Chytil down to the third trio, it would really have something cooking.

The Canucks don’t have a ton of cap room to play with — after all, you have to assume any team trading for McTavish would also be inking him to a sizeable, long-term extension — but there are certainly pieces they could ship out in a punch if they had to make some room.

The Flames are often talked about in the context of being sellers, but Calgary has been targeting NHL players in the early or mid-stages of their careers, an McTavish certainly fits their preferred demographic.

What’s more, Calgary just happens to have a right-shot defenceman to offer up in the form of Rasmus Andersson. If McTavish’s name lives on the outer time of trade rumours, Andersson has been at the epicentre of them since the off-season began, and it became increasingly evident — with one year left to go on his contract before unrestricted free agency awaits in 2026 — the Swede’s long-term future is not in Southern Alberta.

So, how about Southern California?

Andersson has some no-trade protection, but Anaheim could be an appealing place to both play and stay, given the lifestyle and upward trajectory of the franchise.

Off-season talk around the Habs tends to focus on two things: how great the deal for defenceman Noah Dobson was, and how the club still has a massive hole at 2C.

Even after acquiring Dobson, the Canadiens still have the powder to get a McTavish deal done if they were really motivated. The problem is that powder might be 2023 fifth-overall pick David Reinbacher. Again, the Ducks appear set long-term on the left side of the blueline, but — like many teams — Anaheim could use a right-shot guy who projects to play in the top four for the next decade.

Despite sustaining a severe knee injury during the pre-season last September, Reinbacher remains a highly regarded D-man who has size and smarts. He could be NHL-ready by October.

Would the Canadiens part with a potential top-four piece like that if it meant
filling that gap behind Nick Suzuki?

I mean, there’s certainly a history here, given the Ducks and Flyers are linked up for the trades that sent Jamie Drysdale (for Cutter Gauthier) and Trevor Zegras (for two draft picks) from Orange County to the Keystone State.

Even if Zegras sticks at centre in Philly, the rebuilding Flyers need lots of help down the middle. Ideally, captain Sean Couturier would be a 3C at this point in his career, and McTavish would actually have a great opportunity to snag the top-line centre job.

The fact that he could so conceivably fill that role tells you why at least a dozen other teams would be interested in McTavish — and why Anaheim would have to be blown away by an offer to move him.