A bevy of picks make up the return of the trade for the 2027 NHL draft prospect.
The Kitchener Rangers have acquired Finnish import forward Luca Santala from the London Knights, the teams announced on Thursday.
In return, London receives four OHL draft picks, including second, third fourth and eighth round picks in 2030. The teams will also swap 2027 import draft picks, with London getting Kitchener's first-rounder in exchange for the Knights' third-rounder.
This trade comes as a result of London needing to clear an import slot after announcing the signing of Vegas Golden Knights prospect Juho Piiparinen earlier today.
With Piiparinen in the fold, that meant the Knights had four imports, with Santala, Marcus Nordmark and Maksim Sokolovskii already holding the three initial spots.
That meant someone had to be the odd man out, and it ends up being the 17-year-old Santala, who signed in London over the summer, but will now end up playing just one game for the team.
The Swiss-born Finnish international played last season between the Kiekko-Espoo U18 and U20 teams, scoring seven goals and five assists in 25 games at the U20 level. The 6-foot-2 forward decided to come over to North America to play OHL hockey in his draft season.
With this trade, the Rangers fill their third import spot, with Santala fitting in alongside Jiri Gombar and Roman Andreev. Following a Memorial Cup championship, there's naturally been a lot of turnover on Kitchener's roster.
But, acquiring a 17-year-old import who projects to be as high as a late-first round pick at next summer's NHL draft provides a good bit of upside, and won't upset the timing of any rebuild the front office is planning.
“We are very excited to welcome Luca to the Rangers,” Rangers General Manager Mike McKenzie said in a press release. “Luca is a high-end NHL prospect who plays a very well-rounded game. We had flexibility to add an import player, and when Luca became available, we jumped at the opportunity and think it is a great fit. We look forward to seeing Luca develop in Kitchener for the next two seasons.”
While you'd think it would be rare for bitter rivals like London and Kitchener to trade with one another, this isn't the first time they've made a sizeable deal in 2026. At last year's trade deadline, the Knights sent Sam O'Reilly and Jared Woolley to Kitchener for a package centred around a mountain picks and Jacob Xu.
This trade worked out spectacularly for Kitchener, as O'Reilly went on to win OHL MVP, playoffs MVP and Memorial Cup MVP, while Woolley was a stabilizing presence on the back end.
The rights for forward Kane Barch were also traded to London from Kitchener this January.
But, with this deal, London drops the import they needed to not exceed the limit, while Kitchener picks up a high-level prospect that should see much more ice with the Rangers, and hopefully develop into a high-end player for them.
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