Mikko Rantanen Burns The Shit Out Of Carolina And Is On His Way To The Dallas Stars After Signing A New 8-Year, $12M AAV Extension
Claus Andersen. Getty Images.The Colorado Avalanche shocked the hockey world when they traded Mikko Rantanen back in January because they weren't confident they could sign him to a long-term contract extension. The reports were that Rantanen was looking for a contract similar to the deal Draisaitl got in Edmonton, which was a $14M AAV deal. Colorado figured they wouldn't be able to meet Rantanen's camp on that one, so they shipped him off to Carolina to make sure they didn't just lose him for nothing in free agency.
The Carolina Hurricanes clearly thought they had a strong chance of signing Rantanen to a long-term extension once they got him in the building. They're a team that is constantly in the playoff mix, they had plenty of Finns on the roster to make him feel at home, and they were reportedly offering close to $13M AAV on a new deal. Clearly the Hurricanes are much higher on themselves than Rantanen is, because it sounds like he never once considered signing an extension there. So with Carolina now staring down the possibility of being left holding the bag on Rantanen and losing him for nothing in free agency over the summer, they needed to make a move.
In comes the Dallas Stars in the early hours of Deadline Day trying to make a final push for Mikko Rantanen.
Obviously they weren't going to be caught making the same dipshit mistake that Carolina made by trading for Rantanen without having a contract extension already in place. So things started to stall out this morning when it looked like a deal wasn't going to be reached. Dallas wasn't willing to pay $13+ for Mikko, and Mikko's camp made it seem like they weren't going to budge.
Until they did…
No state income tax wins again!
He made Colorado think they'd get laughed out of the negotiating room for even offering $12M. He spent weeks playing for the Carolina Hurricanes, and had already turned down an offer worth more than what he just signed in Dallas. He hasn't even stepped foot in the Dallas Stars' building yet and he's already taking an 8x12? God that has to be such a kick in the dick to Eric Tulsky and the Carolina Hurricanes.
I'm not a mathematician. I can't tell you how much more Mikko Rantanen will actually take home signing this deal in Texas as opposed to if he took the deal in Colorado or Carolina. But all I know is that if I'm either of those fanbases right now, I hate this dude's guts forever.
What a move for Dallas, though. This automatically puts them right at the top of the contenders in the Western Conference. You bring in Rantanen, and you could potentially bring Tyler Seguin back into the lineup off LTIR at some point in the playoffs. Winnipeg is a wagon. The Oilers still have McDavid. Colorado and Vegas are monsters. The playoffs in the West are about to be a BLOODBATH. But Mikko Rantanen is a cold blooded killer once the playoffs star. He's been over a point-per-game in the playoffs in each of the past 6 seasons. 25 points in 20 playoff games when the Avs won the Cup in 2022. 21 points in 15 games back in the bubble. He has 101 career playoff points in 81 career playoff games. That's the type of guy you need on your roster once every game is the difference between moving on or going home.
Sidenote: Here's the return for Carolina. Stankoven and two 1st round picks.
Don't get me wrong, that's an absolute haul. Stankoven is awesome, and two 1st's is huge. But to lose both Martin Necas and Mikko Rantanen in the same season, and Logan Stankoven is the only proven commodity you have to show for it? That's pretty brutal. I guess if you just look at the trade as Martin Necas for Stankoven + two 1st rounders, it's easier to digest for Carolina fans. But this definitely ends any chance they had of actually contending for a Cup this year, and they were already planning the parade when the initial Rantanen deal happened.