Rumor: 2024-2025 Trade Rumors and Free Agency Talk | The Slow Crawl to the Season

[Balthazar]

Brady is the Sens' Landeskog, they aren't moving him.

 

[LOFIN]

Brady is the Sens' Landeskog, they aren't moving him.

Even if they were entertaining the idea, it would take a lot more to move Brady on a good contract with 4 years left than just Rantanen who is a one year rental. Rantanen + Girard/Manson + 1st is probably something that won't make them immediately hang up.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I would do B.Tkachuk for Rantanen - 1 for 1 rather easily.

I wouldn't trade Rantanen for Necas straight-up for sure but if he's the main piece and then you add 1 or 2 solid pieces, I'd look at it for sure.

I think Necas is significantly better than Burakovsky, personally.

I don't think losing Rantanen for nothing is a good idea but it's probably even a better idea than giving him a massive bag and then having him become even lazier than he was last year and having him for 8 years after that.

Bottom line - if the Avs sign him and he doesn't get back to what he previously was - and I'm talking strictly effort-wise here - we are f***ed.

I mean Brady for Mikko 1 for 1 just isn’t happening. I don’t believe the rumors of Brady wanting to leave entirely and even then that’s a move that probably would’ve already if it was an option. But if you’re moving Mikko that’s obviously the best case scenario. But realistically you’re looking at a Hubi/Tkachuk type trade.

In the end I think everyone’s overreacting a bit to a somewhat down year that Mikko had. The cap situation would certainly not be great after a new contract, but there’s just no way you can move him with the uncertainty at wing right now.

 

[chet1926]

Friedman this morning basically saying the Draisaitl deal has complicated the Rantanen's contract negotiations. He says he still believes Rantanen stays, but the numbers have changed.

Then he goes on to talk about how expensive MacKinnon is, and how expensive Makar will soon be, and implies how screwed the Avs are if they signed Rantanen . Naysayers look away!

I mean we are screwed if we sign Rantanen. It's a terrible choice to do so. We'll basically have 3 highly paid guys and a boat load of scrubs.

If Rants wants 13M+ you can't pay it. He's a f***ing winger, not a center. That 13M needs to be two guys like a 8-9M guy and a 4-5M guy if the team wants any chance moving forward.

 

[LOFIN]

I mean we are screwed if we sign Rantanen. It's a terrible choice to do so. We'll basically have 3 highly paid guys and a boat load of scrubs.

If Rants wants 13M+ you can't pay it. He's a f***ing winger, not a center. That 13M needs to be two guys like a 8-9M guy and a 4-5M guy if the team wants any chance moving forward.

Instead of Rantanen, we could have Jake Guentzel AND Yakov Trenin!

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Rantanen making $12.5M absolutely is not what will/is ultimately sink this ship. These ridiculous notions need to stop.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Rantanen making $12.5M absolutely is not what will/is ultimately sink this ship. These ridiculous notions need to stop.

No, Rantanen making 12.5M and being required to play with MacKinnon/Makar is the issue. A third wheel shouldn't have to cost 12M+. If he was driving the second line on the wing, I personally wouldn't be making a deal out of his salary.

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

It is shortsighted to look at a single year out of an 8 year contract. If Drouin performs as he did the final 75% of last season, he is going to get offers far higher than $3.75. One of two things happens in goal: 1) Georgie plays like Shesterkin and demands ( and gets somewhere) more than $3.25 or 2) He really sucks and the Avs need to pony up for a goalie ( is Nabakov really going to take the #1 in 12 months? I doubt it.) Mitts is a UFA the year after that. Where is his money coming from? For those who reply " Ritchie on an ELC", that contract will be up the same time as Mitts, Makar, Lehky and Girard.

Signing Mikko for $12M+ is like the death of 1000 cuts. Sure, LOC is a swallowable loss. But then Drouin? Then Lehky? Then Mitts? All the while Landy is eating $7M to play 3LW.

I think CMac is going to sign Mikko. But the Avs have already proven (twice in 2 years) that they are unable to get out of the second round with an elite top line and elite top pair. How does it get any easier after handing Mikko his retirement contract? Especially after moving Byram for only 3 years of Mitts? This is not simply a matter of losing LOC next year.

I understand these valid arguments.
My vision is based on the fact that I don't really care after 3 years.
We've been having this window discussion for a few years now. The most pessimists were saying the window was closing with Mack's new contract, so that season 21-22 was the last season of the window. The optimists were saying that the Avs would continue to be competitive and probably cup contenders for a few more years, maybe even 3-5 additional years. We're about to start Year 3 after Mack's contract, so we're already entering the territory of the optimists. Even I, as an optimist, don't think we will be a cup contender in 4 years. There is a reason why C-Mac chose to sign Mitts for 3 years at a lower cap rate instead of a "smarter" 6 years contract. Its because even him knows there is a line in the sands coming fast.
That's why I agree with Hench that now is not the time to trade Rantanen. You'll get worst now, when it counts, in order to be better later, when it will be to late. Just like trading him two years ago, when it counted the most in order to be better now, wouldn't have made much sense either. It would possibly have made us better today, but at the cost of being worst the last years when it was supposed to matter more (with hindsight we didn't win so we can say now that we should have done it, but it wouldn't have made sense back then).
Our best years are behind and there's nothing we can do about it. Now its about maximizing what's left of it. And that requires Lando and Nuke to be back, healthy and good. Otherwise we're screwed. If they are back. you can look at our top 9 F and Top 4 D and compare them to our Cup winning line-up. You will see a LOT of similarities (switch Kadri for Mitts, Bura for Drouin and Compher for Colton). Ageing is a factor, but Mack won the MVP last year so its hard to say he's hit regression... It applies to Lando, Toews and Manson however. Which is now we're weaker than we were. But still a cup contender. We should all enjoy while it lasts instead of endlessly complaining about why we don't have a perfect team.

 

[Pokecheque]

No, Rantanen making 12.5M and being required to play with MacKinnon/Makar is the issue. A third wheel shouldn't have to cost 12M+. If he was driving the second line on the wing, I personally wouldn't be making a deal out of his salary.

The team's best winger is not a "third wheel."

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

Of what you listed there's 3 or 4 teams in the West that have clearly better lineups.

And teams are allowed to ice an extra 3 forwards and 2 defense. Just because the Avs choose not to play those other 5 guys doesn't mean other teams won't. And we saw how gassed the Avs were against Dallas after an entire season of only 14 guys getting ice time each night.

There aren't 4 teams in the West with clearly better top 9 F and Top 4 D if Lando and Nuke comes back healthy.

 

[shadow1]

No, Rantanen making 12.5M and being required to play with MacKinnon/Makar is the issue. A third wheel shouldn't have to cost 12M+. If he was driving the second line on the wing, I personally wouldn't be making a deal out of his salary.

Rantanen played on the second line in the Dallas series, and has frequently done so throughout various post-seasons.

When Colorado won the Cup, he played on the 2nd line nearly the entire post-season. Of his 25 points (which led forwards), MacKinnon was only involved with 9 of them. And of those, only 3 were at even strength.

Bednar has been reluctant to separate MacKinnon and Rantanen in the regular season, but that's a Bednar issue.

 

[chet1926]

The team's best winger is not a "third wheel."

If you are wanting 12M plus and can't consistently drive your own line, you are a 3rd wheel.

His production is very dependent on playing on 29s wing. Virtually every time 96 is pulled from 29 his production dips sans one time when 29 was hurt and he actually stepped up. 29s production is fairly constant with or without 96.

Can't pay 12M+ to a guy who can't drive a line on his own.

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

Wow the discussion about mikko's next deal is strange.

The people opposed keep suggesting that if he's traded - the only thing we'd be able to get is futures which I find weird.

Why is the choice - signing #96 to a huge contract OR only getting picks/prospects in return and nothing in between? Doesn't make sense to me.
The Avs wouldn't trade Rantanen for purely futures.

I believe there is certainly a way for the Avs to get younger while trading Rantanen and maybe not have that much of a drop-off.

Just look at a guy like Necas. He just signed the ROR 2-year deal in Carolina - they are going to trade him at some point. He's making $6.5M for the next 2 years...that adds cap flexibility and you get younger for a couple of years. When he's up in 2 years, he's probably still not looking for anything near $12M.

Brady Tkachuk we keep hearing off-and-on that he's 'unhappy' in Ottawa - that guy makes $8.2M over the next 4 years...that would be a sweet top line winger to add.

Both these guys could potentially be available - both those teams needs a 'jump start' for sure.

Both these players are not as good as Mikko scoring-wise but I'd be willing to bet that they could be about 75-80% as productive playing with Mack and on the top PP... when you offset that with the cap savings, you really have to think about it.

I know that with time we tend to forget and the just look at the stats sheet but I was extremely disappointed with mikko's season and effort level for the majority of last season. I understand fully that he had a very productive season but he was very much grabbing on to #29's MVP season - almost in a Rob Brown* sort of way.

(*Rob Brown put up 115 pts playing on the top line in Pittsburgh playing with Mario Lemieux when Mario put up 199 pts in 1988-89 - it wasn't that extreme but it was at least a bit similar)

I don't think the Avs should be afraid to make this kind of deal. The Panthers did it with Huberdeau and look how much they benefitted. The idea is that you do what's best for the future of the franchise and the way Rantanen looked to me last year - I certainly would be very nervous about signing him to a massive long-term extension.

Good post.
If you can flip Rantanen for Brady you do it. But I highly doubt that's available. The age doesn't fit what Ottawa is doing. They're going to milk him up until the end of his contract, like Cagay did with his brother. But if it is available, then I would like that trade!

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

No, Rantanen making 12.5M and being required to play with MacKinnon/Makar is the issue. A third wheel shouldn't have to cost 12M+. If he was driving the second line on the wing, I personally wouldn't be making a deal out of his salary.

Still not really the issue. That trio are elite together and more then capable of winning a cup as your best players.


There's two issues at play really. One of which is completely out of our control. Age, and our complete inability to draft.


Age we have no control over and it is arguably what is shutting the window down the quickest and most significantly. All of our guys are psst their prime years now with the lone exception being maybe Makar. Everyone else is on the downswing. Nothing we can really do about that. It's the simple reality of sports. We've already made the playoffs 7(?) years in a row heading into this year and shouldn't have any issues hitting 8 straight years this year. We've been contenders for probably 5 of those 8 years, arguably even more. It's just the simple factor that we can't control. We've enjoyed a really good contending team for a long time but it's quickly ending because of the aging curve.


The second factor is our dogshit drafting. And it's one that we absolutely had a lot of control over but failed miserably for basically our entire window. Had they drafted well, we could have supplanted some of our lost depth with solid young players making an impact and maybe found a legitimate core level player still young enough to be entering their prime years now. The type of things that maybe would have extended the window another 2-3 years beyond what were looking at now(I would argue we have 1 year left as a contender if things blend together well this year).




Ultimately, having Mack and Mikko making $25M combined isn't the reason we won't contend. There's still enough money to build a top tier contender especially as the cap continues to rise(Quite frankly Mack st $12.6M already looks like A+ value). It's the aging curve and the drafting that is slowly sinking this ship.

Father Time has a perfect record and we unfortunately will not be the ones to bust it.

 

[Pokecheque]

If you are wanting 12M plus and can't consistently drive your own line, you are a 3rd wheel.

His production is very dependent on playing on 29s wing. Virtually every time 96 is pulled from 29 his production dips sans one time when 29 was hurt and he actually stepped up. 29s production is fairly constant with or without 96.

Can't pay 12M+ to a guy who can't drive a line on his own.

Well, the year before was when 29, 8, and practically the entire lineup struggled with injuries, and 96 stepped up big-time. He had NO problem driving a line on his own. And yes, I know you added in "consistently," but IMO Rants is more consistent than people give him credit for.

Anyway, I fully understand making the roster this top-heavy isn't a great idea, but I simply don't think there's an alternative at this point.

 

[LOFIN]

Even if you perceive Rantanen having to play with MacKinnon as an issue, it's not a Rantanen issue. It's a Bednar issue.

 

[Pokecheque]

Even if you perceive Rantanen having to play with MacKinnon as an issue, it's not a Rantanen issue. It's a Bednar issue.

Last year was way more of a Johansen issue than anything else. At least now they won't half-assedly try to put Mikko at center. It's clear the coaches and the player just don't have any desire to do that.

 

[LOFIN]

Last year was way more of a Johansen issue than anything else. At least now they won't half-assedly try to put Mikko at center. It's clear the coaches and the player just don't have any desire to do that.

I stand by my opinion that it's on Bednar, entirely. He should have enough clout in the room to be able to determine the lines for crying out loud. He just doesn't want to.

We won the cup when Rantanen played the most important games away from MacKinnon. Rantanen has been at his best with the Avs when he has been separate from MacKinnon, carrying his own line.

I hope, but I'm not optimistic at this point that we would actually see it next season if we have Landy and/or Nuke back. We have an abundance of top-6 wingers at that point (in reality we don't, because someone is hurt lol).

 

[John Mandalorian]

One thing about Rantanen, at least to this point, is he suits up. Disregarding covid shortened seasons, the most games he’s missed is 8. Girard missed 23 games last year. Manson missed 53(?) games the year before that.

 

[MacKaRant]

The problem with Rantanen to me is how disengaged he looked last season. 9 more years of that is not a fun idea no matter what kind of point production he provides. Does this guy have the drive to continue to give value for money on that contract? Or does he do a Huberdeau?

 

[Pokecheque]

I stand by my opinion that it's on Bednar, entirely. He should have enough clout in the room to be able to determine the lines for crying out loud. He just doesn't want to.

We won the cup when Rantanen played the most important games away from MacKinnon. Rantanen has been at his best with the Avs when he has been separate from MacKinnon, carrying his own line.

I hope, but I'm not optimistic at this point that we would actually see it next season if we have Landy and/or Nuke back. We have an abundance of top-6 wingers at that point (in reality we don't, because someone is hurt lol).

At no point during the Cup run did Rants carry his own line. Kadri was easily the third-best, and frankly sometimes second-best player on the team.

 

[LOFIN]

At no point during the Cup run did Rants carry his own line. Kadri was easily the third-best, and frankly sometimes second-best player on the team.

I don't disagree. But he did play on a separate line from MacKinnon.

And was the second best point producer (after Makar) during the run, better than MacKinnon. While we don't remember Mikko for being a face of that cup-run, he was a pretty damn good soldier.

 

[Pokecheque]

I don't disagree. But he did play on a separate line from MacKinnon.

And was the second best point producer (after Makar) during the run, better than MacKinnon. While we don't remember Mikko for being a face of that cup-run, he was a pretty damn good soldier.

That I agree with, and I also agree that Bednar has his faults. But I don’t believe that MacKinnon and Rantanen being joined at the hip is 100% on Bednar.

 

[AvsCOL]

My issue is that some nights he looks like a $13mil player, other nights he looks like a $2mil player. He’s always had those consistency issues, which is why it’s so frustrating to watch. When he’s at his best, there’s nights where he’s the best player on the ice. If you can get that version of Mikko even most nights, I wouldn’t hesitate to give him whatever he wants.

 

[chet1926]

Well, the year before was when 29, 8, and practically the entire lineup struggled with injuries, and 96 stepped up big-time. He had NO problem driving a line on his own. And yes, I know you added in "consistently," but IMO Rants is more consistent than people give him credit for.

Anyway, I fully understand making the roster this top-heavy isn't a great idea, but I simply don't think there's an alternative at this point.

It's simply not consistent enough. At that price point I shouldn't have to wonder can he do it consistently, there should be no doubt.

This is the issue with 96. Great player but doesn't carry a line. Can we afford that kind of luxury?