Mikko Rantanen Was Never Signing with the Carolina Hurricanes
Rantanen Made His Mind Up He Wasn't Staying in Carolina Once He Got Traded From Colorado
The saga involving Mikko Rantanen and the Carolina Hurricanes continues even after the Hurricanes traded him to the Dallas Stars at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline.
First, nobody saw Mikko Rantanen being traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the Carolina Hurricanes outside of David Calabretta from Full Press Hockey. But to get traded a second time is incredible, especially for a player of Rantanen's calibre.
Rantanen got traded again, as Full Press Hockey predicted he would, even though there was much debate on where he would go. But it was clear even before the trade that Rantanen did not want to go to Carolina.
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Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky was on The Sheet with Jeff Marek on Daily Faceoff and was asked about the Rantanen deal and what happened in Carolina. Despite the Hurricanes changing their philosophy and being more aggressive, the player already knew that Carolina was never going to be home.
I mean, big picture. We want to be aggressive. We want to take swings. We had a chance to acquire the kind of player you can't normally get your hands on. We took our shot. We knew he was not going to sign an extension the day we traded for him. We had reason to believe maybe we were right, maybe we were wrong, but we had reason to believe we had a decent chance of getting it done. He came in, he decided it wasn't for him. That's been pretty rare for us. And you know, we had time to move on and still end up okay, and we got a player who we're really happy with.
So it begs the question, why make the trade in the first place? As a matter of fact, the player himself did not want to leave Colorado to begin with. Reports show that he made a concession on the day(s) leading up to the initial trade from the Avalanche on January 24th. Those reports indicate he was willing to sign for $12 million a season, the same AAV he got with the Dallas Stars, to stay in Colorado.
🚨Night Cap Recap 🚨
Mikko Rantanen to Dallas plus other moving parts #texashockey #raiseup #isles #njdevils pic.twitter.com/P5gRVjCjTD— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) March 7, 2025
For whatever reason, the Avalanche did not budge on their initial offer of $11.5-$11.6 million. Again, Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland knew Mikko Rantanen was playing hardball from the start of the season, not wanting to negotiate during the year. Not to mention the cap space he needed for next season, but still feeling hurt that much that a trade was necessary.
The more and more that comes out about the whole Rantanen and Hurricanes situation it makes the statements by Rod Brind’Amour make even more sense.
Why did the Hurricanes trade for him. No permission to talk to him & Mikko indicated on staying in Colorado. Why make that trade.… https://t.co/jYBFBDhSD6— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) March 12, 2025
Still, Rantanen wanted to stay in Colorado. His group, led by Andy Scott of Octagon, wanted to get an extension. Rantanen even went to management to let them know he was willing to be flexible, but then was soon traded.
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The belief was that Tulsky thought Rantanen wanted to sign a long-term contract, but he always knew he did not. He did not even reach the point where he could speak to Rantanen before the trade went down. According to his agent, Rantanen never wanted to be traded by any team in the first place.
Rantanen wanted the big city life. Like in any relationship, some signals were not read properly. But the Hurricanes made the trade anyway, knowing BEFORE the trade that he was not signing an extension.
So we did talk to them. They said at that time they were not interested in an extension with anyone but Colorado," Tulsky continued. They were focused on that. So before the trade, he was hoping to be there, like that was where he wanted to be at the time. The question was, what would happen after he got traded? And they didn't want to think about that. They wanted to focus on getting a deal done there. After the trade, he wasn't ready to sign that day, but he gave me a minute here to get used to the change in my life, and we'll talk, and we'll give them a week or two.
We had a pitch that we went through where we talked about everything and how the team is going to look going forward. He was appreciative and engaged, and said he'd keep thinking about it. Time went by, and he realized that for whatever reason, it wasn't the right place for him and I never got the sense that he had any issue with our team or our coaches or anything like that. I think this just didn't feel like home to him. Is the sense I got. I hate putting words in someone else's mouth. That's how it felt to me.
Rantanen just dragged the Hurricanes along, knowing he was not going to stay there. As Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour stated the other day, it was clear that Rantanen knew Carolina was not the place for him.
“There's not been one guy that has left here because they didn't like it here. That was, except for Mikko, and he did not like it. When he showed up, he said, 'There's four teams I'll go play for, but you're not one of them,'" Brind'Amour said in his press conference on Monday. "So there's 28 other teams he wasn't going to, and the better question is, should we have known that before we signed him, or attempted to sign him?"
But as Brind'Amour noted later, he questioned the GM and said, "We probably shouldn't have known that before we made the deal.”
Now Tulsky did clarify the statement as Brind'Amour's language has to be interpreted. Mikko Rantanen did not come in right away, demanding to be traded right away. But he knew the style of play that Carolina clashed with his style. So he took his mind. Made sure the process went on as long as possible and then told Carolina a week before the deadline he wanted out.
But Mikko Rantanen knew throughout all the meetings that Carolina was not the fit for him. So the Hurricanes moved him to the Dallas Stars for Logan Stankoven, who fits the Hurricanes system.
While acquiring a player of Rantanen's ilk it might be best to read the tea leaves a little better. The signs were there, he did not want to be in Carolina even before the trade happened. Sometimes the risk is not worth the reward.
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