Why the Hurricanes traded Mikko Rantanen after 13 games, and what’s next in Carolina
Mikko Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes proved to be brief.
Unable to sign the Finnish forward to a long-term contract, the Hurricanes on Friday dealt him to the Dallas Stars a few hours before the NHL trade deadline. In exchange, the Hurricanes received forward Logan Stankoven, two first-round draft picks, and two third-round draft picks from the Stars.
The trade with Dallas was finalized after Rantanen agreed to an eight-year contract extension that will pay an average of $12 million a year with the Stars.
The Canes obtained Rantanen on Jan. 24 in a blockbuster trade with the Colorado Avalanche that sent ripples through the league, trading forwards Martin Necas, Jack Drury and draft picks to the Avs. They picked up one of the league’s top point producers, a former All-Star and Stanley Cup winner.
The thought was that Rantanen, who played with Sebastian Aho on Finland’s 4 Nations Face-Off team, would join his old friend in giving the Canes the offensive firepower to make a strong push in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But the inability to make progress on a contract extension — possibly eight years for $100 million — resulted in the Canes making a move before the deadline..
Canes general manager Eric Tulsky, in a Friday press conference, said his sense of Rantanen deciding not to sign long term with Carolina was that it “just did not feel like home to him.”
“I think we have a great organization, I think we have a great coach, I think we have a great locker room, but it doesn’t fit for everyone,” Tulsky said. “It’s a person’s life, and he’s making an eight-year commitment, and if this doesn’t feel like the right place for him, that’s OK.
“... Money was never going to be the issue. The issue was it just didn’t feel like home to him.”
Tulsky does not second-guess his decision to trade for Rantanen, who played the first 10 years of his career with Colorado but was due to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
“Our organization is characterized by an aggressive approach,” Tulsky said. “On and off the ice, we want to be aggressive whenever we can. Being aggressive means taking some risks. It means taking some chances. If you only make moves when you’re a hundred percent sure and you know how it’s going to work out, you’re going to miss some opportunities to make the team better.
“That’s not what we want to do. If the team was already winning Cup after Cup after Cup, maybe that would be a time to be conservative. But we haven’t gotten where we want to be yet, so we need to keep taking chances and trying to push things forward. Ultimately, that means you’re taking some risks.”
Rantanen, he said, was worth the risk. The Canes, he said, had the salary-cap space to make a lucrative enough offer, but the decision was Rantanen’s.
“You look around, at your situation, and see what’s best for you,” Rantanen said in a televised phone interview with Canadian sports station TSN on Friday afternoon. “That’s what I was doing for a month or so and trying to think about everything. It’s just a fit in Dallas and just excited to be part of the group.”
It sounded as if Rantanen had already done his due diligence on moving to Dallas.
“Everything was considered in the moment,” Rantanen said. “I knew ... I’ve played against Dallas a lot, I know they have a good team, I know the city well enough and everything there, and I’ve only heard good things about the organization. At the end of the day, it was an easy decision at that point.”
Rantanen was in the Canes’ lineup Thursday in a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins at the Lenovo Center.
In his 13 games with Carolina, he had just two goals and four assists and did nothing to help an ailing Canes power play.
Stankoven, 22, was a second-round draft pick by Dallas in 2021 and has played 83 NHL games for the Stars. In 59 games this season, the 5-foot-8 forward has nine goals and 20 assists.
“He’s a really aggressive player, just by nature,” Tulsky said. “When the puck’s on his stick he’s very shifty, he’s aggressive, he’s attacking. He’s not the tallest player in the world, but he’s taller than he looks, and he plays hard and he competes hard.”
Tulsky said the Canes considered other moves on Friday, but that the time consumed with completing the Rantanen deal did not free up the cap space needed. The Canes did make one late trade, picking up depth forward Mark Jankowski from the Nashville Predators.
Tulsky said injured forward Will Carrier is expected to return before the playoffs, and that the Canes hoped to add defenseman Alexander Nikishin when the KHL regular season and playoffs end in Russia. He said Nikishin’s contract runs through May 31.
A year ago, the Canes acquired forward Jake Guentzel, a pending unrestricted free agent, for a playoff push before the 2024 trade deadline, but could not reach a deal to keep him with Carolina because the cap space. The Canes traded Guentzel’s rights to Tampa Bay, which then signed Guentzel to a seven-year contract.
Tulsky again made a big swing — with the approval of owner Tom Dundon — in trading for Rantanen. The Chicago Blackhawks were a third party in the big deal, trading Taylor Hall, a former NHL MVP, to the Canes and while picking up half of Rantanen’s $9.25 million salary in exchange for Carolina’s 2025 third-round draft pick.
Rantanen, who had 681 points in 619 games with the Avs, is in the final year of six-year, $55.5 million contract. He recently said he was becoming more comfortable each day with his new team and Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour’s system.
Other trades around the NHL
While Rantanen’s status was among the bigger stories on NHL trade deadline day in 2025, it was far from the only one.
Here is a list of select trades across the league:
▪ In perhaps the biggest deals of the day beyond the Rantanen deal, the Boston Bruins traded captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers for a conditional second-round draft pick, and stalwart defenseman Brandon Carlo to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
▪ The Bruins also made a trade with the Colorado Avalanche earlier Friday, sending forward Charlie Coyle to the Avs for forward Casey Mittelstadt.
▪ Former Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek was on the move again Friday. The Detroit Red Wings acquired Mrazek and Craig Smith from the Chicago Blackhawks for center Joe Veleno.
▪ Brandon Tanev was traded in the early afternoon from the Seattle Kraken to the Winnipeg Jets.
▪ Scott Laughton was traded from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs sent Nikita Grebenkin to Philly along with a first-round pick, for Laughton and two later-round picks. The Flyers also retained 50% of Laughton’s salary.
▪ The first really big deal of the day came down just after noon Friday. The Buffalo Sabres sent forward Dylan Cozens, a former first-round draft pick, and Dennis Gilbert, with a second-round pick to the Ottawa Senators for forward Josh Norris and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker.
▪ The Flyers traded left wing Andrei Kuzmenko to the Los Angeles Kings for a third-round pick in 2027. Kuzmenko had only been in Philly for about a month, acquired at that time from the Calgary Flames in a trade that sent Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to the Flames.
▪ After waiting around for a while Friday morning, a trade finally emerged to break the ice: The Penguins sent forward Anthony Beauvillier to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick in 2025, the teams have confirmed.
▪ After a flurry of smaller trades later Thursday night, the first big chip to move did so just after midnight Friday on the East coast. The New York Islanders sent center Brock Nelson, a member of Team USA at the recent 4 Nations Face Off, to the Avalanche along with forward William Dufour for Oliver Kylington, Calum Ritchie, a 2026 first-round draft pick and a conditional third-round pick in 2028.
▪ Earlier Thursday, a pair of players rejoined former teams. Reilly Smith, who was on the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup team, went back to Vegas after a sting with the Rangers. Also, Jakub Lauko returned to the Bruins in a trade that sent Justin Brazeau to the Minnesota Wild.
▪ The Edmonton Oilers remained active in the wee hours Friday, acquiring defenseman Jake Walman from the San Jose Sharks, in exchange for Carl Berglund and a conditional 2026 first-round pick. The Oilers earlier this week acquired depth forward Trent Frederic in a bigger deal with the Bruins.
▪ March kicked off with a pair of big deals: The New York Rangers sent defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Jimmy Vesey to the Avalanche for defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward Juuso Parssinen as part of a larger deal on March 1, and a day later, the Panthers shored up their defensive toughness and depth by acquiring Seth Jones from the Blackhawks for third-string goalie Spencer Knight and a conditional first-round pick.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 9:43 AM.
