Mikko Rantanen was traded to the Dallas Stars yesterday, just over a month since being acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes. Now that the dust has settled around the trade, a number of interesting details about the whole process has come out.
On TSN’s Trade Centre broadcast yesterday, Bob McKenzie mentioned that the Toronto Maple Leafs would be a destination that Rantanen would consider signing long-term with. Today, Elliotte Friedman reports that the Hurricanes asked for Mitch Marner in a trade. Presumably because they haven’t been able to get Marner signed as of yet, and they think they’d have an easier time signing Rantanen, the Leafs considered it and took it to Marner. Marner would not waive his no-trade clause to move to Carolina, so that idea ended there.
With Marner not an option, Nick Kypreos reported that the Leafs offer for Rantanen was Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten and two 1st round picks. Carolina decided to go with the Dallas offer and the Leafs eventually traded Minten and their 2026 and 2027 1st round picks to get Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton.
One more tidbit that came out in the aftermath: Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that prior to being traded to Carolina, Rantanen was asked if he would consider signing with the Hurricanes. Rantanen and his camp, apparently believing the question not to be legitimate and rather to be Colorado playing hardball, answered that he would consider signing with the Hurricanes. When the question proved legitimate by the trade going down, Rantanen was taken aback and wasn’t prepared to sign with the Hurricanes in his few weeks there.