Will the Hurricanes Offer Mikko Rantanen Fair Market Value?

The Carolina Hurricanes made waves on Friday night with the acquisition of Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche.

Colorado and Rantanen were at an impasse when it came to contract negotiations. Rantanen was looking for $14 million a season on his next contract. Leon Draisaitl set the market with the Edmonton Oilers with his extension, as they gave him $14 million on an AAV.

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Things were put on hold until the end of the season. Many thought this negotiation would continue in the off-season and go down to the final minutes before free agency began. However, Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland wants to operate within an internal salary cap, with Nathan MacKinnon setting the mark at $12.6 million.

With other needs and extensions coming, especially to Cale Makar, the Avalanche made a tough decision to move on from Mikko Rantanen. Thus, activity picked up on Rantanen over the last couple of weeks.

As Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky stated, he had talks with the Avalanche about Mikko Rantanen in the summer. However, once Colorado would not extend him, Tulsky re-engaged in talks with MacFarland to acquire Rantanen, a premier forward in the NHL.

“Mikko is one of the premier power forwards in our sport,” said Tulsky. “It’s no secret that we’ve wanted to add elite skill to our lineup, and this is a player who should fit our system and locker room well. And Taylor gives us another high-skill option to bolster our attack.”

Will the Hurricanes Extend Mikko Rantanen?

There was no extension agreed to as part of the trade. Sometimes, teams acquiring a pending UFA will want to know that player is open to staying before investing heavily in a trade. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said the night of the move that the Hurricanes are taking their chances.

“I think one of the key factors here is that there is not an extension as part of this trade for Rantanen and the Hurricanes, but the Hurricanes now have until the March 7 trade deadline to see if they can convince Rantanen to sign. One of Rantanen’s good buddies is Sebastian Aho of the Hurricanes, and I have no doubt that Aho was going to lead the lobbying efforts to see if Rantanen will sign.”

But now it is on Tulsky and the Hurricanes to get Rantanen signed, but is this something that can happen? Hurricanes GM hopes he can and feels the team and the area will sell itself to him, as he told Sirius XM NHL Network Radio.

I mean, certainly, that’s our hope. Also, we won’t know for sure until we get ink on paper, but we believe we have a good team, a coach that players like to play for, a city that’s fun for people to be in, and a lot of things that make this an attractive destination. Tulsky The difference between this year and last year with (Jake) Guentzel is we have more cap space so we don’t feel quite as constrained. We have a little bit more room to to make sure that we can make an offer that should be really compelling.

The question for the Hurricanes and their owner, Tom Dundon, is whether they will be willing to make Rantanen the highest-paid winger. Will they be willing to pay him more than Sebastian Aho, who has an AAV of $9.75 million?

Hurricanes Have to Convince Rantanen to Stay

We know ownership has been reluctant to pay players in the past. However, since his GM acquired a top 10 player in the league, risking a future asset for the organization, ownership has to be willing to negotiate to keep him.

Jake Guentzel was a pure rental last year when they acquired him from the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a different situation cap-wise. Carolina moved his rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning. A similar situation could play out again, but Eric Tulsky wants to keep Mikko Rantanen in Carolina for the long term.

Those contract talks have yet to take place as Rantanen is just settling into new surroundings. It will be interesting to see what the number ultimately is and how the contract breaks down.

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