It's pretty f***ing unfair to paint Rantanen as this difficult person to negotiate with, when it really was a bunch of these big-name RFAs (Tkachuck, Laine, Point, Rantanen, Marner) who were all up during that offseason, and ALL OF THEM took until just the training camp to sign. Marner signed first, and the rest followed within a week. It was a waiting game to see who sets the market. And Rantanen wasn't even the last person to sign, and he signed for less than Marner, while having a better case than him.
Byram was supposed to "difficult to negotiate with" too. That was a narrative pushed for a long time with nothing to support it. Then he signed the first day he was able to on July 1st to a reasonable bridge deal.
I don't see Mikko needing top dollar, or more than Nate, to re-sign with the Avs. He'll want to get paid for sure, but I have a feeling he would accept Nate's $12.6M. Maybe even a bit less.
Mikko will be a year older than Nate in the first year of his next deal too, so term comes into play here too. The same AAV and term as Nate's deal, will be a better deal for Mikko than Nate, because it pays him his highest salary until 36 instead of 35.
My guess is he gets the same deal. Similar to Kane and Toews signing for the same deal. And if they're open about it, it might not be that difficult a negotiation. Avs say we don't want to go above Nate's AAV, Mikko says ok then give me Nate's deal, Avs say ok becasue they know it'll end up there anyway.
Not that the Avs would force a hard MacK cap, and not go above it, but it lets them posture like they don't want to go above it, to save a few much needed bucks.
I don't think anyone would argue that as good as Mikko is, he should be the highest paid player in the NHL. Getting what would have been the highest AAV in the NHL at $12.6M, the season after Matthews took the lead at $13.5M, seems like a fair compromise. Matthews deal is only 5 years too.