First Shift 🏒
Mikko Rantanen is in rare air right now.
The Stars forward has nine goals and eight assists for 17 points in his past six games. The only other player to do something similar is Wayne Gretzky. Rantanen also had a run where he had a hand in 13 straight playoff goals, something accomplished previously by Jaromír Jágr and Mario Lemieux. Not bad company for the 28-year-old.
“It's the best performance I've got to witness, standing where I'm standing with a guy on my team for this extended period,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “But, you know, for me, he's just getting started. He's just warming up here. I think he's on a mission.”
Rantanen has a strong history. After more than a decade with the Colorado Avalanche, he ranks seventh all-time in playoff points per game at 1.30. He has played in 91 postseason games and helped the Avalanche win the 2022 Stanley Cup, so he has been here before. However, this year is different. Rantanen was traded twice and is just 30 total games into his Dallas Stars experience. After getting moved from Colorado to Carolina and then from Carolina to Dallas, all because he could have become an unrestricted free agent, Rantanen appears to have found a home with the Stars. He signed an eight-year contract extension for $12 million a year, making him the highest paid player on the team. He is settling in nicely.
“When you think about his journey this year, he’s been through a lot,” DeBoer said. “There’s been a lot written about him, there’s been a lot said about him, there’s been a lot of doubters out there on the situations he’s been in. I think there’s a lot of motivations there.”
Rantanen has talked about the process and how this has been a challenging season. He said he has fit in well, in part, because the Stars have a strong contingent of Finnish player. But, he added, he’s just having fun and trying to play a simple game.
"I'm trying to stay in the moment,” he said when asked about being compared to some of the biggest names in hockey history. “I'm happy to help the team and try to keep doing that as much as I can, both ends of the ice. I'm trying to stay in the moment and even keel after wins and good games."
That said, he definitely is impressing his teammates.
"It's great to be on the same side, for sure,” said linemate Mikael Granlund, who has had to face Rantanen a lot in his NHL career. “We all can see what he's doing out there right now. He's such a great player, and he's playing at a really high level right now. It's great to be on the same side, and hopefully he keeps going."
DeBoer said the Rantanen factor has made him change his coaching style. In the past few games, DeBoer has slipped Rantanen into several different situations, including on the fourth line, where he has been very successful.
“It definitely changes things when you have a guy like that, a star player, it changes a little bit of the identity of your team,” DeBoer said. “I think we’ve been built around four lines and kind of waves of pressure. I think when you add a player like that, you have to coach your team a little bit differently. You have to get him out there more. I think that’s the challenge, to integrate him and build around that without losing what has made us successful here. It took a while, and I think there were some bumps trying to find that line, but I think we understand that now.”
It also makes it tougher to coach against the Stars. Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel was asked what the difference is between the Stars team that the Jets beat during the regular season and the one it is facing now.
“Some guy named Rantanen over there,” Arniel said.
“You know what, I know Pete’s system, we’ve been in the Central Division, and we butt heads a lot,” the Jets coach added. “Two teams that match up quite similarly. I think the adjustments do happen game to game. We made some adjustments after one, they made some adjustments after two, and we’re going to have to make some adjustments after that night. That’s just part of the game within the game. I think that’s one thing we see in playoffs. In all the series going on right now, you can’t just stay status quo. It’s a case of us making sure we’re ready.”
