The Carolina Hurricanes made the trade of the season by acquiring Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche. His contract negotiations fell through with Colorado, forcing the high-profile deal. Now, Carolina general manager Eric Tulsky has started the negotiations with very little success. That has re-ignited trade rumors but ESPN insider Greg Wyshynski says there is no way the Hurricanes trade Mikko Rantanen.
“Look, this might end up being a bad take, but I’m not buying the idea that the Hurricanes traded Martin Necas for a negotiating window with Rantanen,” Wyshynski wrote. “They’re trying to win the Stanley Cup this season — heck, they’d be happy just to play for one under coach Rod Brind’Amour. Their best chance to do so is with Rantanen, rather than with whatever they’d get back for him at the deadline.”
This is the take for everyone against trading Rantanen. The Hurricanes have not won an Eastern Conference Final game in Brind’Amor’s career as the coach. If he can help them get to the Cup Final, it would be a worthy trade.
The argument for the Hurricanes trading Mikko Rantanen is that they gave up a lot for just half of a season. Which direction should they go?
The Hurricanes must keep Mikko Rantanen
While they are fighting for the Eastern Conference title, the Hurricanes need an elite goal scorer. Martin Necas was that for the first half of this season but they sent him to Colorado for Rantanen. If they were to trade Rantanen, they would not get a player of Necas’ value back because of the contract situation. Without either of those scorers, they will have a tough run in the playoffs.
Throughout the Hurricanes’ recent run of success, scoring has been the biggest issue. Brind’amor has installed a fantastic defensive skill and Jaccob Slavin is one of the best defenders in the world. With those anchors in place, they give up very few goals. But elite offense wins sometimes, which happened in 2019 against the Bruins and 2023 against the Panthers. The Hurricanes need elite offense to fight back against those teams.
Mikko Rantanen has that elite upside but has not shown it in his short time with the Hurricanes. Through eight games, he has just three points and he struggled during the 4 Nations Face-Off. That tournament was another opportunity for him to play with new teammate Sebastian Aho but has not helped his assimilation into the team quite yet. Given time, Rantanen can become the star they traded for.
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