Everyone In Hockey Needs To Be Rooting For The Ultimate Chaos Move At The Deadline And See Mikko Rantanen Get Traded Yet Again
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.The Colorado Avalanche threw a grenade into the hockey world back in January when they traded Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas and Jack Drury. Everyone had an idea that Colorado trading Rantanen was a possibility, considering he is in the final year of his 6-year, $55.5M contract. But I still don't think anyone actually expected him to get traded.
Colorado wasn't 100% positive they were going to be able to sign him in free agency over the summer, so they decided to get out ahead of it and pick up a couple of quality players in return to make sure they didn't just lose one of the best players in the league for free.
Right away, everyone considered the Carolina Hurricanes to be the big winner of the trade. They got the best player in the deal. They had the cap space to work with to sign him to an extension. They had some fellow Finnish players on the roster to make him feel at home. Everyone immediately assumed this move put the Carolina Hurricanes all in to win a Cup. A little over a month has past since the trade and…well…
Now Carolina finds themselves in the same spot as Colorado was in back in January. Only Carolina is actually worse off considering they gave up Martin Necas and Jack Drury to get Rantanen. They probably thought they'd be getting Rantanen for another 8 years when that trade went down, and now it's starting to look like they may only be renting him for a few months.
I honestly don't know what situation creates the most chaos and carnage here. Personally I would love to see Rantanen get traded again before the deadline at 3pm tomorrow. I can't imagine there's a long list of guys who have been traded twice in the same season before, let alone a top 10 point scorer in the league. I think that would be sick. A guy putting up over a point per game during the season while wearing 3 different uniforms. That would rule so hard.
But it would also be hilarious to see the Hurricanes keep Rantanen at the deadline, get bounced early in the playoffs, and then have Mikko Rantanen go right back to Colorado in free agency. It would suck in the short term because it would mean Trade Deadline Day would be far less chaotic. But long term, that would be a scenario that would leave the Carolina Hurricanes broken and destroyed forever. I don't know how an organization would bounce back from something like that. I don't have a strong hatred towards the Hurricanes, but I sure as shit don't want to see them succeed. So that scenario would also be delightful entertainment.
At the end of the day, I think it would be great to get some juice back to Deadline Day in the NHL. I feel like it's been awhile since we've had a crazy deadline day with any major moves going down right at the wire. And we really missed out on any explosive reactions the first time Rantanen was traded this year. It was a Friday night right before conference championships in the NFL. Give us a Rantanen trade at 1pm tomorrow to really get the weekend started off the right way. Toronto can make the deal and then we can all root for it to blow up in the Leafs' face come playoff time.