Avalanche GM: 'Tough Business Decision' to Trade Mikko Rantanen in NHL Blockbuster

Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said it was a "tough business decision" to trade star winger Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in the final year of his contract.

"It's a bittersweet day," MacFarland told reporters Saturday (h/t DNVR Avalanche.) "Mikko is a decorated player for us. He's an elite winger in this league. So, it was a tough few days, but we just felt the timing was right, and when the last few days it kind of came together— we decided to act yesterday, but it wasn't without a lot of serious thought, I can assure you of that."

MacFarland continued: "It was just a tough business decision here for us, and we just felt the pieces we got, it made sense to strike now."

The Avalanche acquired former Hurricanes forwards Jack Drury and Martin Nečas, along with a 2025 second-rounder and 2026 fourth-rounder, in a three-team trade on Friday that also involved the Chicago Blackhawks.

Rantanen, who had played parts of 10 seasons with the Avalanche, was a key part of the team's run to the 2022 Stanley Cup as a formidable offensive duo with Nathan MacKinnon.

He is coming off of back-to-back 40-goal, 100-point seasons, and at the time of the trade ranked sixth in the NHL with 64 points in 49 games.

But Rantanen is also playing in the final year of the six-year, $9.25 million AAV contract he signed with the Avs ahead of the 2019-20 season.

According to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, Rantanen was seeking an extension "in the neighborhood" of the eight-year, $14 million AAV deal Leon Draisaitl inked with the Edmonton Oilers last September.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman wrote after the trade that Draisaitl's deal "altered the negotiations" between the Avs and Rantanen.

According to Friedman, the Avalanche "just weren't willing to go in that area" in part because of their commitments to MacKinnon and Cale Makar. MacKinnon is signed through the 2030-31 season at a $12.6 million AAV. Cale Makar is locked in at $9 million per year for two more seasons, but will need a raise by 2027-28.

Rantanen is represented by the same agent as Draisaitl. Falling short of his camp's expectations could have meant the Avs risked losing him for nothing in free agency this summer.

Instead, the Avs will take on Hall's expiring deal alongside a pair of two-year contracts with Nečas ($6.5 million AAV) and Drury ($1.725 million AAV) in exchange for parting with Rantanen.

"Mikko earned the right to be an unrestricted free agent, and he's five months away from that," MacFarland told reporters. "You've got to make these hard decisions, the player has to make them, and the club has to make them. And that's what we did."

"And getting two cost-controlled assets was important. We felt we got a top-six guy, and a good bottom-six guy, and away we go."

The Hurricanes, on the other hand, are apparently hoping to convince Rantanen to sign his next deal in Carolina.

Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky described the team's extension talks with Rantanen on Saturday as "more of a recruiting pitch than a negotiation," according to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski.

"If he gets to free agency, I'm sure there will be teams that will pay him a lot of money, and so our job in the next weeks and months is to make it so he wants to be here," Tulsky said, per Wyshynski. "He has the right as a free agent to decide where to sign and it may not come down to the money for him.

"It may come down to where he wants to be. So our goal is to make him want to be here and then offer enough money that he doesn't have to think twice about it."

Meanwhile, MacFarland indicated the Avalanche may not be done making trades ahead of the March 7 trade deadline.

"There's a little more bullets in the draft pick cupboards, and some cap space... we'll continue to look, and if something makes sense, then we'll certainly strike," MacFarland said.

The Avs saved just over $1 million in cap space with the trade, PuckPedia reports. The team has about $5.6 million remaining in LTIR space, although that number will decrease when Avalanche winger Miles Wood returns from the back injury that has sidelined him since November, per PuckPedia.