The Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes had been talking for a while, and extension talks will wait
Chris Johnston of The Athletic: There were many teams that were shocked that the Colorado Avalanche traded Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes. One executive wasn’t surprised but it was kept under wraps: “I’m not completely surprised, but we didn’t hear a thing.”
The Hurricanes didn’t talk to Rantanen’s camp before making the trade and he was blindsided by it.
Before the 2024 NHL draft in June, the Hurricanes were at an impasse with then pending RFA forward Martin Necas, and the Avs were one of the teams they spoke to but it wasn’t close. Trade talks between the team picked up over the past two months.
One source after the trade: “What else is Colorado up to? They’ve opened up more cap space and there’s no way they are stopping here.”
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David Pagnotta: Rantanen knew that a trade was a possibility given the way the contract talks were going. Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky has spoken with Rantanen’s camp but knows that some acclimation time is needed before they start any serious talks.
Ryan Henkel: GM Tulsky said that talks got serious in the past two weeks and added: “We’ve been floating concepts all the way back to the summer and have been trading serious offers for 6-8 weeks.”
Rantanen would have taken a discount to stay in Colorado and a few trade fallout notes
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Believe that Mikko Rantanen was willing to take a little less to stay with the Colorado Avalanche and that he wasn’t stuck on $14 million. Don’t think the Avalanche were comfortable with having Rantanen around $12.6 million.
One advantage for the Carolina Hurricanes extending Rantanen is they can now go eight years with other teams only seven. The Hurricanes might also propose deferred payments as they did for Seth Jarvis and Jaccob Slavin. Rantanen has the same agent, Andy Scott, as Leon Draisait; and they didn’t go for the Edmonton Oilers offer of deferred payments.
There was speculation that Jesperi Kotkaniemi might have been part of the trade, but sources say his name wasn’t part of the specific trade negotiations. His name may have come up as he was part of the Hurricanes trade talks with the Vancouver Canucks.
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There were several teams that had no idea that Rantanen was available for trade. The Avalanche did contact a very small number of teams.
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