The Dallas Stars just made the biggest splash of the NHL Trade Deadline, acquiring forward Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes per multiple reports. As part of the trade, Rantanen has reportedly agreed to an 8 year, $12M extension with Dallas. The price appears to be forward Logan Stankoven, two 1st round picks, and some other “smaller pieces” per Pierre Lebrun. Emily Kaplan has reported the additional pieces are two 3rd round picks.
Heading into the season, Rantanen had spend his entire career with the Colorado Avalanche as a bonafide superstar winger, scoring at a point-per-game plus rate every year since his rookie season. However, Colorado shocked the hockey world earlier this year by sending him to the Hurricanes in return for Martin Necas and change, reportedly worried they were not going to be able to sign the pending UFA to an extension.
In Carolina, however, Rantanen wasn’t putting up the same numbers without Nathan MacKinnon on his line. Furthermore, Carolina was also struggling to sign Rantanen long term, even at reportedly at $13M for 8 years. Thus in the past couple weeks, there has been speculation that Carolina would do the same as Carolina and flip him to another team, rather than use him as a pure rental.
Enter the Dallas Stars: reports broke late last night that the Stars were in heavy talks to acquire Rantanen. This morning, reporters stated that a framework of the deal was all but finished, but that Dallas would not pull the trigger unless they could come to terms with Rantanen on an extension. At first, contract talks evidently came to a standstill, before ultimately an 8 year, $12M AAV deal was agreed upon.
If Rantanen is able to get back to his Colorado production levels or even close, he would immediately become the Stars’ best scoring forward. Putting him on a line with Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson would, if the chemistry works out, give Dallas arguably the best line in hockey. Furthermore, the move likely makes Dallas the Stanley Cup favorite, or at least one of the top contenders.
The price ultimately wasn’t cheap, however. Dallas had already traded this year’s first round pick for Mikael Granlund, and another two on top of that means Dallas won’t be restocking the cupboard with high picks for a long, long time. The Stars also lose one of their top prospects in Logan Stankoven, who is still on track to be a good if not great player in the NHL.
But after a red hot start to the year, Stankoven has been struggling to put up points (or at least is very snakebit). Rantanen immediately offers an upgrade for now and the forseable future — he’s the type of player that you can only dream someone like Stankoven might develop into. It’s like the old Family Guy bit: would you rather have a boat, or the mystery box that might end up being a boat?
As for the picks? The Stars are firmly in “win now” mode, and should be picking at the back of the 1st for the near future. Again, picks offer intrigue and mystery, but proven commodities are what when you championships. Drafts come and go — flags fly forever.
And you know what the best part is? The deadline is still not over — stay tuned in to see if Jim Nill has more up his sleeve.