TSN 1050: Darren Dreger on TSN 1050 1st Up, when asked if the Carolina Hurricanes will have the appetite to give Mikko Rantanen a huge new contract after having a history of not wanting to play their players big money.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Carlo Coliacovo: “It was a blockbuster. Uh, Dreg’s help us understand the Rantanen situation. What type of money is this guy searching for on the open market? And is Tom Dundon and the Hurricanes, like do they have an appetite to pay that, because the history shows that Dundon has never been up for paying big money to his, to his players.”
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Dreger: “Yeah, and I think he does have the appetite. You know, we’re going to find out whether it’s appetite or whether it’s reality or not, right? You know, I’m sure he’s going to be a hard negotiator in this process. But, you know, you’re again, repeat myself, you’ve just managed to wrestle away one of the top two-way players in the sport, period.
So you don’t make that deal unless you know what you believe the open market is going to command, and probably that’s somewhere around $14 million. Is it going to take $14 million? Maybe not. How do you know? You know, maybe you know, maybe Mikko Rantanen again, falls in love with, you know, Carolina who (inaudible) there, maybe loves the coaching of Rod Brind’Amour. I mean, there are so many factors that are going to come into play.
But I know that, you know, those who represent Mikko Rantanen are going to have a lot of back and forth with Tom Dundon. Because he likes to communicate and he locks, likes to talk things through. And I look in a perfect world, I’m sure he’d get to the hard negotiating, not just, ‘hey, what do you think?’ Should we let him settle in for a couple of weeks and see how he feels? You know, I’ll bet you Dundon is, ‘hey, hey, hey, any minute you guys want to sit down and hash out the parameters. We don’t have to close the deal, but the parameters. I’m open to that. Let’s get after it.’
And they probably tried to have those conversations. They being Carolina to this point. But that number, ultimately, what it is, is going to be fascinating. It’s going, and just to play Devil’s Advocate here, Carlo, what if, what if Mikko Rantanen just decides, yeah, it’s been good here in Carolina, you know, and we’re talking about getting past trade deadline, f course, I’m going to wait. I’m going to wait to July one.
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That’s going to muddy the waters a little bit for a number of teams. It will. Because all of a sudden, Mikko Rantanen comes into play and all bets are off with a lot of clubs.”
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