Nobody grows up dreaming of winning a “best supporting actor” award.
Everyone wants to be the star. The leading man. The person in the spotlight.
On 90% of NHL teams, Mikko Rantanen would be that guy. Back-to-back 100-point seasons and 97 goals in the two seasons is the type of production most players can only dream about.
He’s not that guy in Colorado though, and as long as Nathan MacKinnon is in town, he probably never will be.
That’s not a problem, though.
“I’m totally okay,” Rantanen told The Denver Gazette. “I just love to be here. It doesn’t bother me.
“Most of the Finnish guys don’t like the spotlight that much anyway.”
The spotlight is kind of on Rantanen right now, but not for on-ice reasons. The soon-to-be 28-year-old winger is entering the final year of his contract and could potentially become an unrestricted free agent next summer. While there were rumblings prior to training camp that a deal might be close, nothing has been signed on the dotted line.
Like most players, Rantanen doesn’t really want to talk about the business side of the game. He’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t really want to leave Colorado, but the two sides have to come to an agreement.
“If we won a Stanley Cup here, why would I want to leave?” Rantanen said after the first day of training camp.
Good point.
Rantanen is a special talent, the kind you can’t exactly replace. For all the talk of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar as future Hall of Famers on this current roster, Rantanen could be on a similar trajectory with his incredible production during the regular season and playoffs.
He makes extremely difficult things on the ice look way easier than they are. Take a play he made in his first appearance during the preseason as an example.
With a puck rimming around the boards at full speed, Rantanen skated towards it, corralled the puck on his backhand, spun to the center of the ice between two defenders, and hit a teammate in front for a scoring chance, all in one motion. In a game full of players who may never play a real NHL game, special plays like that really stand out.
And Rantanen is capable of making special plays like that on a consistent basis when the games really matter.
Fans have watched the Finnish forward grow up right in front of their eyes. Immediately after drafting him 10th overall in 2015, the Avalanche signed him and convinced the then 18-year-old to come to North America. Outside of a nine-game stint in the NHL where Patrick Roy tried to make him into a center, he spent most of that first year in North America in the AHL.
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All the signs of future greatness were there.
Rantanen produced 60 points in just 52 games with the San Antonio Rampage and was named co-Rookie of the Year after the season ended. The reason he only played 52 games is because he spent a large chunk of December and January leading a stacked Team Finland to a gold medal at the World Junior Championships. While that team was loaded with future NHL stars, including Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz and future top five draft picks Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi, it was Rantanen that wore the “C.”
From that point on, he’s never looked back, although his first full season in the NHL wasn’t exactly fun. The Avalanche finished with a horrific 22-56-4 record during his rookie campaign, but the 20-year-old Rantanen was one of the lone bright spots. Towards the end of that season, he found himself attached at the hip with MacKinnon and from the outside looking in, it seemed like the two found immediate chemistry.
He concurs.
“I think it was (immediate),” Rantanen said. “I think it’s been continued since then. (We’ve) had a lot of success together. It’s fun to play with him and I think he probably agrees. It’s fun to play with guys who you have chemistry with and it makes the game easier.”
Coach Jared Bednar occasionally separates the two in games, but it usually doesn’t last for very long. Can you blame him? The temptation to “spread the wealth” is there for any head coach, but when you have a duo like MacKinnon and Rantanen who have been dominant together for nearly a decade, it’s difficult to keep them apart.
Especially when they’re essentially on the same wavelength.
“I know what he wants to do, where he wants to go, and where he wants me to be,” Rantanen said. “And he knows kind of what I do and where I go on the ice, and that makes it easy in the game.”
Part of being on the same wavelength as MacKinnon is understanding what’s expected of you. A lot has been made of MacKinnon’s dedication to being the best that he can be, but very few talk about Rantanen’s dedication. You don’t reach the levels he’s reached without being very dedicated.
No, he doesn’t have a nutritionist like MacKinnon (“I don’t think I need one when I have him in the same locker room,” he jokes) but the Finn takes his job seriously.
“I take a lot of pride in being consistent,” Rantanen said. “That’s what separates the best players from even the best players, the consistency. What’s the difference between your bad game and good game? It’s got to be really small.”
While there is some frustration among the fan base when it comes to his consistency on a shift-to-shift basis, there is no denying how productive he’s been.
Since the start of the 2017-18 season, only seven players have more points than Rantanen and only seven players have produced at a higher rate on a per-game basis. He’s elite, and he’ll get paid handsomely because of it.
The Avalanche hope to be the ones paying him, and Rantanen doesn’t sound like a guy ready to leave. After a decade in North America that included hoisting the Stanley Cup, he’s comfortable here.
“It’s crazy that it’s already 10 years. It feels like a second home.”
