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Carolina Hurricanes Officially Trade Mikko Rantanen

Originally posted on Hockey Unplugged
By Graham Montgomery | Last updated Mar 7, 2025 1:11 PM ET

The Carolina Hurricanes have traded superstar winger Mikko Rantanen to the Dallas Stars.

Mikko Rantanen has had quite the unusual year. He began the season with the Colorado Avalanche, where everyone expected him to stay.

Considering the fact that the Avalanche are one of the top contenders in the Western Conference, it wouldn't make sense for the team to trade him right?

Apparently not, as the team moved him to the Carolina Hurricanes well ahead of the trade deadline in exchange for Martin Necas and Jack Drury.

However, Rantanen has struggled with the Hurricanes. After putting up 25 goals and 64 points in 49 games with the Avalanche, he had just 2 goals and 6 points in 12 contests with the Hurricanes.

Carolina was apparently hoping to sign Rantanen to a long-term contract extension but as that proved to be difficult, they elected to move on from him instead.

So instead of going into the playoffs with the Finish forward, Hurricanes general manager Erik Tulsky flipped him to the Dallas Stars.

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the story.

Friedman, alongside other insiders, revealed that the only thing holding up the deal was extension talks between Rantanen and the Stars.

'The biggest news is that Carolina and Dallas have the framework of a trade that would send Mikko Rantanen to Texas. After the two teams agreed on the particulars, the Stars began negotiations on an extension with the winger. Getting that done - or close enough to it that Dallas is comfortable - will be critical to completing the trade.'

Clearly, the Stars were able to secure their newest forward with a long-term extension, which will shape the team's forward core for years to come.

Rantanen has 289 goals and 687 points in 631 career games. He won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022, scoring 5 goals and 25 points in 20 games on that run.

This article first appeared on Hockey Unplugged and was syndicated with permission.

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