Confirmed Trade: [CAR/COL/CHI] Mikko Rantanen (50%), Taylor Hall, Nils Juntorp to CAR; Martin Necas, Jack Drury, '25 2nd, '26 4th to COL; '25 3rd to CHI for retention

[Hunter368]

None of us leave money at the table when looking for employment, you're a hypocrite if you bash Rantanen for doing the same

100% agree, albeit I would also say players play that game of max out their pay and so players shouldn't get upset when teams trade them bc they want too much for their cap strategy/team.

I have no issues with rant wanting potentially 14 mill, but I also have no issues with Avs trading his ass out for other assets and cap space. Its a business both ways.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

This core already won a cup.

Avs are 5 points out of 4th in the NHL and 6 points out of 3rd. There are franchises that have never had a duo as good as Mack/Makar in their history let alone playing together in their primes.

With how atrocious Georgiev was, just getting stability with goaltending is enough to make them a top team. If they had literally 900 (league average) goaltending from him in his 18 games, that's probably an extra 6-10 points on AVERAGE (not good or great) goaltending alone.

Anyways, they're basically haggling over 2-3 million dollars and honestly why? You pay your superstars, especially proven ones at that. The floor for Rantanen is 11 mill considering that basically most teams in the NHL would pay him that ASAP considering that since 2020 he is 4th in the league in points and 5th in goals.

The Avs trying to save 2-3 million dollars on him isn't the major difference maker it is made out to be, especially if Makar and Mack aren't going to also take 2-3 million lesson (which Mack took the max and I'd bet Makar will also take the max)

This team is not remotely close to the cup winning team of 21-22. That team had prime Kadri, Landeskog, Burakovsky, Nichushkin.

I don't think Colorado are even top 5 in the West, much less the NHL. Winnipeg, Dallas, Edmonton, Vegas, even Minnesota now that Kaprizov is healthy again. The Avs are no longer Stanley Cup favorites, this is a perfect time to retool, get younger, and not kill the team.

 

[Aurinko]

The allready know by now what Rants is looking for and went on with this trade....

Expect a signing soon.....

Ofc they know what he want, but since there is no signing, it tells me there wont be one either.

If Rantanen asked 14M from the Av's, he will not take a step back before he's seen all the offers. Him signing Canes now would not make sense for him or the Canes. Canes get to see what they have and Rants doesn't need to prove anything to cash in.

 

[Habs Halifax]

The Avs dominated that game and had the puck 75% of the time. You loose sometimes.

I like Necas and we need to give him time with the change of teams but how does your context apply here? Avs dominated and had the puck 75% of the time but Necas was a -3?

Here is another stat that deflates both Necas and Drury's first games...
* Drury's giveaways/60 was a whopping 7.96/60
* Necas's giveaways/60 was not good either 4.77/60.

This was not a good start for either player. And yes, it was one game.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

I like Necas and we need to give him time with the change of teams but how does your context apply here?

Did you actually watch the game?

 

[elmaco]

100% agree, albeit I would also say players play that game of max out their pay and so players shouldn't get upset when teams trade them bc they want too much for their cap strategy/team.

I have no issues with rant wanting potentially 14 mill, but I also have no issues with Avs trading his ass out for other assets and cap space. Its a business both ways.

100%, im disgusted at some of the lack of discipline for high earning players today.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Did you actually watch the game?

No I didn't. But there is context that both players did not have a good game. It's OK, it was just one game and it might take time to establish chemistry.

 

[Breakers]

This reminds me so much of Huberdeau in florida

Guy keeps thinking they are being casual in negotiations as the big offer is coming

Then boom traded

 

[sxvnert]

What will Nescas demand on his next deal? Maybe playing with Mac and Makar he will be a 12+ per player?

Assuming he wont be sent elsewhere in some other deal for a player with term left on his deal.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

No I didn't. But there is context that both players did not have a good game. It's OK, it was just one game and it might take time to establish chemistry.

Would you agree that a player can have a good game with things to be positive about overall but it ends up looking questionable on the stat sheet since it's a team game?

 

[Hennessy]

Man, I knew that this thread would start talking about these guys' first games. I knew it, but it still amazes me.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Would you agree that a player can have a good game with things to be positive about overall but it ends up looking questionable on the stat sheet since it's a team game?

Sometimes yes. Are you saying this is the case in this situation? I'm a fan of Necas and I think you will be fine with him. Drury? Not sure so we need more sample size.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Sometimes yes. Are you saying this is the case in this situation? I'm a fan of Necas and I think you will be fine with him. Drury? Not sure so we need more sample size.

Correct

 

[Fatass]

Assuming he wont be sent elsewhere in some other deal for a player with term left on his deal.

Clearly Rantanen is a much better player than Nescas. So, considering that, and he’s only getting closer to UFA, any return the Avs would get for Nescas would be diminishing. Why would they go from Rantanen, downgrade to Nescas, and then downgrade again?

 

[Habs Halifax]

This reminds me so much of Huberdeau in florida

Guy keeps thinking they are being casual in negotiations as the big offer is coming

Then boom traded

I wonder how much the agent talks to the player? I'm sure it's frequent but there could be some disconnect at times where the Agent put a hard line in the sand and the player trust them but also says, I prefer to stay. Agent says, don't worry, they will pay you.

What do the Avs do? They make one last phone call to the agent asking for $11M-$12M AAV and the agent shuts it down thinking more offers are coming later. The tricky part to the Avs telling Rantanten and his agent they are shopping him in a trade (option B lets say) is the agent can then leak the info and you get a shit storm of media and fan barrage. We have seen that before too. Look at what is happening to the Canucks at the moment.

I find this stuff interesting but as fans, we can only speculate the details.

 

[Breakers]

Marner and Rantanen UFA is wild

Man can both as for a lot

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Friedman hinted at many teams not able or willing to go up to or above 100M as the cap increases. If that's the case, the trade starts to make a lot more sense. Especially with Makar coming up.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

MacKinnon isn't too happy about losing his right hand man from the past 10 years.

 

[Habs Halifax]

None of us leave money at the table when looking for employment, you're a hypocrite if you bash Rantanen for doing the same

Sorry man but that is not good context. Comparing average citizens to sports athletes? Come on man.

Yeah, $100k vs $80K for 8 years ($160k difference) is the same as $11.5M vs $13.5M for 8 years ($16M difference)

* $640k vs $800K does not really set you up for life over those 8 years. You have to continue the yearly grind until 60+

* $92M vs $108M. You and your family can retire with $92M and your kids and you kid's kids will also be fine.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Friedman hinted at many teams not able or willing to go up to or above 100M as the cap increases. If that's the case, the trade starts to make a lot more sense. Especially with Makar coming up.

The Avs are owned by one of the wealthier groups in the league so the implication that they won’t spend to the cap with a potential contending team is hilarious and surely infuriating for their fans.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

The Avs are owned by one of the wealthier groups in the league so the implication that they won’t spend to the cap with a potential contending team is hilarious and surely infuriating for their fans.

Very true. There's no reason to think that's actually true - they are currently just now wrapping up the planning phase of beginning to build a massive new practice facility area for Avs/Nuggets. I don't see why they wouldn't continue to be a cap ceiling team until MacKinnon's deal is up.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Friedman hinted at many teams not able or willing to go up to or above 100M as the cap increases. If that's the case, the trade starts to make a lot more sense. Especially with Makar coming up.

That's an interesting development and I did hear some insiders talk about that. Us fans think every single team will spend $100M (at least the contenders anyways) but the revenue needs to support it. This is a business after all.

Remember, there are probably a handful amount of teams that generate way more revenue vs other teams. See where the Avs fall below from last season. It's a $100M difference vs the Oilers. The higher the cap goes, the more difference between the top earners and lower earners. I have read Bettman was worred about shocking the system. Hence why they canceled Escrow payments for the rest of the year and also to share extra profits.

NHL Cancels Escrow Payments; What It Means For Islanders

The NHL has received some very promising financial news.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

The Avs are owned by one of the wealthier groups in the league so the implication that they won’t spend to the cap with a potential contending team is hilarious and surely infuriating for their fans.

Most NHL ownership groups are wealthy. The implication was not that ownership groups could not afford to run a team with a 100M+ budget, it was that they may not want to.

Most NHL teams already have some form of an internal budget or limitations that require the ownership to sign off on to break. Problem hear budget team, and they wrongly assume that the implication is that the team is run like the Melnyk era Sens.

 

[NVious]

This team is not remotely close to the cup winning team of 21-22. That team had prime Kadri, Landeskog, Burakovsky, Nichushkin.

I don't think Colorado are even top 5 in the West, much less the NHL. Winnipeg, Dallas, Edmonton, Vegas, even Minnesota now that Kaprizov is healthy again. The Avs are no longer Stanley Cup favorites, this is a perfect time to retool, get younger, and not kill the team.

Kadri is a loss for sure, same thing with Landeskog, but they have his cap space if they want it, Burakovsky is a nothing burger and they still have Kush.

Vegas is an extremely well built team, but they lack the top end talent of Colorado, that's maybe the only team that is "clearly" better than them. All the other teams are flawed:

Edmonton lacks goaltending and a true 1D
Winnipeg has had some colossal meltdowns in the playoffs with this core
Dallas is great but some of their players have taken a step back and they're even older
Minnesota looks great, but they've proven nothing

Why break up arguably the best trio in the game? For Necas and savings? Any team with a duo as good as the two Ma(c)ks is going to compete, but with a trio of arguably the best winger in the game (including playoffs), they will always be in the contention mix.

This also overlooks the locker room aspect of breaking up a successful trio in their primes and why exactly? Because they wanted to save 2-3 million dollars? 2-3 million dollars gets you very little in today's NHL and often times a player 60-80% of the original 10+ million player and a 2-3 million dollar player (based on savings) can be a massive downgrade as a whole. This isn't some guaranteed home run for them nor did they get some haul for Rantanen either.

 

[pelderhostiga]

Avs are a dynasty team with the stars they have. One cup yes but more is expected. You don't see many teams with MacKinnon, Markar, Rantanen pieces too often. Depth issues are a problem but could be fixed over a year or so.

If Rantanen was willing to take a discount, he should have (what was the delay)? Avs could not risk having him walk for nothing (clearly). They have way more information than we do and I'm pretty sure the Avs preferred Rantanen to stay. My gut says Avs preferred $11M - $12M range and Rantanen's agent was $13M+. I hear of the $14M talks and maybe your take less was $13M but still way to high for the Avs. They clearly had no confidence Rantanen would come down to $11M - $12M range.

I stand firm. There is a 50/50 revenue split. Owners will not get more money if guys like Rantanen take $11.5M vs $13.5M. Who gets the money? Your teammates and your GM has more to work with. There is a lot of greed going on with agents and this "rising cap". Stars should be paid and $11.5M for Rantanen is him getting paid! Give me a break with "I need to protect my family" narrative, when you will have well north of $150M in career earnings.

The delay was that the Avs never offered him a discount contract. At least at the moment it seems that the Avs weren't ready to pay over 11.75M to a player with a contract projection of 13.3M. There's still a lot of room for a discount contract between those numbers, and it seems that Rantanen was waiting for it yet it never came. I don't know where people keep coming up with the 13M+ or 14M contract demands, since no rumors or news indicate that Rantanen wouldn't have been ready to a sign a 12-13M contract. 13-14M might have been his agent's negotiation tactic, but it seems that it was never the end goal.

It just still seems absurd to me that the Avs weren't willing to budge on a rumored less than one million difference in the contract negotiations for a beloved franchise player who was a proven superstar and playoff performer and had helped the team from it's worst times to a Stanley Cup, yet they had no problem throwing a newly acquired goalie a bigger and longer contract than projected after 5 games.