Hurricanes don't regret taking chance on Rantanen

RALEIGH, N.C. -- When the Carolina Hurricanes acquired Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche in a blockbuster three-team trade on Jan. 24, they quickly indicated their interest in signing the 28-year-old forward to an eight-year contract.

But on Friday, just six weeks after the Hurricanes had acquired him, it was the Dallas Stars who instead signed Rantanen to an eight-year, $96 million contract ($12 million average annual value), doing so after acquiring him in a trade with Carolina for forward Logan Stankoven, a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, a conditional first-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft, a third-round pick in the 2026 draft, and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

“We haven’t gotten where we wanted to be yet, so we need to keep taking chances and trying to push things forward,” Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said on Friday. “Ultimately, that means you are taking some risks. When you’re bringing in a player like Mikko, the upside of having that work out long term is worth that risk, in my mind. Obviously, we didn’t want it to end with him being traded away.”

The cost of that risk in January was forwards Jack Drury and Martin Necas, who were traded to Colorado along with a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and a fourth-round pick in the 2026 draft. The Hurricanes also acquired forward Taylor Hall from Chicago Blackhawks in the three-team deal.

Despite playing on Carolina’s top line with his close friend, fellow Finnish forward Sebastian Aho, Rantanen couldn’t replicate the same offensive output he produced in Colorado. After getting 64 points (25 goals, 39 assists) in 49 games this season with the Avalanche, Rantanen had just six points (two goals, four assists) in 13 games with the Hurricanes.

And as the NHL Trade Deadline approached, he ultimately rejected Carolina’s contract offers.

“We knew it was a risk. The upside, if he did sign, was big,” Tulsky said. “It’s hard to acquire players like this. That upside is worth chasing.

“My sense of it from where I was sitting was this just didn’t feel like home to him. Everybody has their own personal needs. I think we have a great organization, I think we have a great coach, and I think we have a great locker room, but it doesn’t fit for everyone.”

Despite that, Tulsky said the Hurricanes would have been willing to keep Rantanen for the rest of the season if they did not receive an offer they liked.

“He’s a very good player, and having him with the team would have been a perfectly fine outcome,” he said. “Having him for a Cup run would have been good. Maybe we win the Cup with him. We had to weigh that against what we could get in a trade.”

At the end of the day, what they got from the Stars outweighed keeping Rantanen.

“When you move him out, that’s a loss for the current year," Tulsky said. "But we bring in a player in [Stankoven] who we think is going to be a very good fit for us right away, and he’s young enough (22) that he’s going to keep getting better and better. It felt like we were getting enough in this deal that it was the right thing for the organization long term.”