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

[Ncit3]

Panthers were probably close or not far off with Huberdeau and that was probably a deal they didn't like but they also don't like loosing talent. What happened there was an opportunity came up and they could not refuse it. Getting Tkachuk in his prime? That was all about timing.

Necas is not M Tkachuk.

This might have something to do with a looming $100M cap and the Avs being $100M less in generating revenue than the top 5 NHL teams. It's going to be interesting to see who are the contenders in the future and how many of them spend max cap.

A team like Vegas and the Stars have the biggest advantage... One of the higher revenue generators with low state tax.

Everyone keeps alluding to Colorado not wanting to spend to cap because of Friedman. Avs have always been a team spending to the cap and will continue. Kroenke has so much money he always will. The Avs are being careful because Makar is going to need an extension soon. And we're unsure the future of Landeskog. Kinda careless for Friedman to say something like that.

 

[Ulf5]

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

Speak for yourself lol. I have a Stanley Cup like Rantanen. I'm clearing multi-million dollars a year after taxes like Rantanen. I have access to accountants that have the means to whittle away those taxes so I'm not paying nearly 50% or whatever like Rantanen.
I'm going somewhere like SJ every single time. A couple/few million be damned. I'm living as close to the arena as possible so traffic isn't an issue. Freshest food on the planet. Hot babies in bikinis. And I'm not freezing my @$$ off.

 

[Kcoyote3]

Necas looking really good. Just hit the post twice on the Powerplay

 

[Chan790]

So are the Canes going to sign Rants to 13 million a year? Seems unlikely?

Unless you think GM Dr. Eric Tulsky wouldn't be honest about it, the answer seems to be "yes, if possible."

"[Rantanen] is an incredible player. If he gets to free agency, I'm sure there will be teams that will pay him a lot of money, and so our job in the next weeks and months is to make it so he wants to be here," Tulsky said. "He has the right as a free agent to decide where to sign, and it may not come down to the money for him. It may come down to where he wants to be. So our goal is to make him want to be here and then offer enough money that he doesn't have to think twice about it."

 

[BB88]

What I like is hearing Mikko say multiple times he was willing to take clearly under market value to stay and then hear Avs fans call him a greedy ass…e

 

[BoxOfChocolates]

What I like is hearing Mikko say multiple times he was willing to take clearly under market value to stay and then hear Avs fans call him a greedy ass…e

Well maybe he should've let his agent know that

 

[Craig Ludwig]

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.

I respect you opinion, but I think we all think too highly than we should about Colorado because MacKinnon is on the team. Since MacKinnon and Rantanen have played together, here are their results in the playoffs:

Yes they won the cup, but not impressive at all in every other year. Time for a shakeup.

 

[EdAVSfan]

What I like is hearing Mikko say multiple times he was willing to take clearly under market value to stay and then hear Avs fans call him a greedy ass…e

You understand that saying « under market value » means nothing in terms of actual numbers.

What’s actual market value? Completely unknown because he’s not on the market yet.

« Under » how much under? Is 250K under enough, or does he mean 3M under.

It’s literally the vaguest shit ever and provides zero context with no baseline for numbers.

 

[BB88]

Avs already knew how it was to negotiate with Rantanen and his agent. Rantanen sat out of camp as a RFA, only signing late september.

It's not like Avs leverage would increase going forward. Rantanen overplayed his hand if he wanted to stay. If he wants to maximize his salary, he still has the chance to.

Except you have multiple people say Avs were basically lowballing him and Rantanen was willing to take under market value to stay

But whatever

 

[BB88]

You understand that saying « under market value » means nothing in terms of actual numbers.

What’s actual market value? Completely unknown because he’s not on the market yet.

« Under » how much under? Is 250K under enough, or does he mean 3M under.

It’s literally the vaguest shit ever and provides zero context with no baseline for numbers.

Well none of you Avs fans accept any numbers people say because they can’t be true based on nothing..

Rants market value is around 14M, he was willing to take clearly less to stay and you hve Lebrun and Friedman saying Avs weren’t willing to pay him Mackinnon money

 

[NotCommitted]

I like this from MacFarland. If you want to be somewhere, then sign there. Don't f*** around.

That goes the other way as well. If you want to keep the player, then sign them and don't f*** around

Apparently their last contract negotiations, they offered him X, his agent came back with X+ and then they heard nothing, until the very last moment and then the deal was quickly hammered into place. It seems it was similar this time around and Rantanen was expecting they'll get back to him at some later date, but that date never came but they chose to trade him instead.

We don't know the details, what was offered and what was Rantanen asking? Maybe they were just so far apart McF figured out it's just not going to work out, which is fair enough, but that doesn't mean a player who "wants to be somewhere" should just sign the first offer the team gives him.

 

[VeteranPresence]

I'm starting to think avalanche won the deal.

I think Colorado did really well here given the circumstances. Usually a trade like this carries an extension for the UFA to be, but not in this case, and there’s no hint Carolina even got to discuss one with Mikko’s camp beforehand which makes it a big risk for them.

The Avs ended up acquiring a player making less AND carrying an extra year of control while producing at a similar rate plus a possible young 3C. The net effect could be Necas + Drury + $4M player ($8M with retention or Mittlestadt moved out) for Rantanen, which is a great position to be in when the focus is clearly adding depth for a Cup run.

The only way this could blow up is that all of Necas, Drury and new player end up being bad fits, but the Avs generally get their pro scouting right:

Drouin-MacK-Necas
Lehkonen-2C-Nuke
Colton-Drury-Wood
Kelly-Parssinen-LOC

Toews-Makar
Girard-Manson
Kylington-Poolman
CDH-Malinski

Blackwood
Wedgewood

That team is a wagon and will be a very tough out if even two of Necas, 2C, Drury and Blackwood pan out. If Landeskog comes back it’s even better.

 

[CaviarAndRinkFries]

 

[NotCommitted]

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.

This is valid point, but the other side is 16 million is a huge amount of money to just leave on the table because "hey I already have enough". You can do all sorts of things with that 16 million. I was just thinking about that the other day and I have some very good projects in mind I could sink endless amounts of money in, for a good cause making the world a better place. How noble of me. If I actually got that kind of money, maybe I'd just waste it all on blow and hookers but even in that case imagine the kind of extra binging you could do with 16M But whatever you use it for, it's loads of money.

The competitive side is that extra 16M is money away from other contracts because of cap, but that's a bit of a two-edged sword, maybe the GM uses it very wisely, creating a cup dynasty environment for you and your team mates, or maybe in your future there's a bunch of overpaid bottom 6ers and having to carry a 35-old over the hill former star vet, who makes almost as much as you do on a 8-year contract I mean I do respect players who take team friendly deals, but there's no guarantees with that.

 

[NotCommitted]

Neat contrasting opinions on here.

Canes fans that watch games - Necas is awesome
Non Canes fans that haven't seen Necas - go to EP, see top year is 71 points and LOL
Avs fans that watch Rants - he's a top 10 forward in the NHL and a legit superstar
Non avs fans - carried by MacK/Mak

My view is that Rants is a established superstar just like Drai. My view is that Necas is an emerging superstar and I don't see going to the Avs hurting his already very good point total.

Time will tell though.

I haven't watched the Canes much in the reg season but I have sort of followed them a bit because Aho is one of my favourite players. I've also watched practically their every playoff game the past couple seasons.

Necas is 26, so it's entirely possible that this is the best he gets, ie. a player who has some very good tools and is capable of flashing star level play for 10, 20 games before falling back to earth. Watching him in Canes during the playoffs was a bit frustrating at times, like the talent and skill he has is obvious, but most times he gets nothing done, then he has a really good game or two and you wonder why isn't he playing like that all the time. The other side is I don't think the Canes system is good for showcasing offensive talent, I think all their top players numbers suffer from that, but Necas maybe the most. While Aho for example can play that game and make it work for him more or less, I'm not sure it suits Necas at all.

At times it seemed almost like they actively avoid getting on the rush 5v5 and always prefer the safer play. Which made them a deadful team to watch at times and I'm sure it frustrates players like Necas and Aho. I remember times where there is a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 developing, Aho is raring to go and his team mate just dumps it in. And I don't think it was on his team mate, that happened so much it clearly seemed to be on coaching.

Felt like they probably had more off-the-rush chances on the PK than 5v5, because on the PK they actually play quite aggressive and go for the rush att if it's there. Seemed a systemic thing.

Anyway, I think Necas could very well really explode with the Avs away from that Canes system. It's also interesting in general because he's the first offensive talented forward to get traded away from Carolina in recent years.

 

[Bruce Granville]

What I like is hearing Mikko say multiple times he was willing to take clearly under market value to stay and then hear Avs fans call him a greedy ass…e

They never offered anything starting with 12 (times 8 making it his #96).
Instead of working on a solution with deferred compensation and convincing Rants (who obviously wanted to stay) they didn‘t even inform him that he will be traded.
Canes were in talks with Avs in the summer, so it was not a surprising situation.
Avs clearly disrespected Rants with their offer and their communication (or lack of).

If I were Rantanen I‘d fire his agent. He didn‘t get the deal done and he got his agent traded against his wishes. I guess the Draisaitl negotiation clouded the assessment of the talks with the Avs…would save him a lot of money.

 

[Czechboy]

Necas is 26, so it's entirely possible that this is the best he gets

I agree with most your points but did want to ask.. Rants is 28.. do you feel he's about to improve or has he peaked?

 

[bleedgreen]

Uhm... I'm pretty sure Rantanen can "drive his own line" to score 50 points a year like Necas has done? Ok I'm framing that in a way that's a bit unfair to Necas but only a bit, if the premise is "Necas is a line driver and Rantanen is not". Besides Carolina plays a very systemic game, everyone there tends to have really good shot metrics. The true test for Necas in COL is carrying the 2nd line or showing he can replace Rantanen and play 22 minutes a night with MacKinnon. I don't think just about anyone can play the kind of minutes MacKinnon and Rantanen have played for the past several years.

Also didn't Rantanen play like 25 minutes a night even centering the 1st line the other season when MacKinnon was injured? He's been a horse for COL, getting the job done, like I'm not saying the team didn't miss a beat with MacKinnon out, but that's not a realistic bar anyway.

I don't think this necessarily turns out bad for Colorado, could even turn out well if Necas takes the next step. Watching him in the playoffs the past couple seasons with Carolina, always struck me as a player who looks like he could be so much better if he "figured it out" or became "more involved" or whatever... but only showed flashes of what he could be.

I see why Colorado would do this though, especially if they feel they probably can't offer Rantanen enough money to make him stay. Necas doesn't have to become the same level as Rantanen to potentially be a very good value for COL. Of course depends if they sign him and what's the AAV gonna be, but since he doesn't have star level resume, it might keep it reasonable even if he does very well the rest of the year + next season.

Necas has been carrying the second line solo all year, and has been doing it for awhile. He did last year too. The reason he’s a good fit for Mack is that Necas plays well with the few people who can keep up with him. Of all people Eric Robinson can keep up with him. During the times he played well with Aho it was on the plays where Aho could get in his horse and keep up. Necas never was consistently any good at slowing down and using his linemates better. Timing his runs to their plays.

He now plays on a team with two guys who can keep up, and the coach is playing them all together.

 

[kcunac]

They’ll have to spend their $35M in cap space on something, why not on Rantanen?

They have Aho, Slavin, Svechnikov, Jarvis locked up. Blake and Nikishin will be on ELCs next year, potentially Morrow and one of Nadeau/Unger Sorum/Artamonov also may make the team on ELCs.

Nikishin “should” be able to replace Orlov, so the only big holes to fill will be Burns and Andersen replacements. Morrow might be ready next year, but probably not for top 4 mins. If they give Rantanen $14M, they’d still have $21M to fill out the roster.

Now, would they pay $14M to Rantanen? Eh, not sure, I doubt it. Will they offer him a competitive aav with the 8th yr? I’d say assuredly yes.

I hope they learned their lesson with Guentzel and are not waiting til 48-72hrs before 7/1 to meet a player’s ask. They’re also in a completely different cap situation this summer vs last. Last summer they had RFAs in Necas, Jarvis and Drury to deal with plus Guentzel,Pesce, Skjei and Noesen coming up as UFAs, every dollar mattered. This summer, no RFAs to worry with and only Orlov, Burns and Andersen (add Hall and Rantanen) to worry about as UFAs. They have Orlov’s replacement lined up, perhaps Burns’ too (Morrow) and as much cap space as I can recall them ever having.

As a Canes fan, I’m feeling pretty optimistic about Rantanen extending. I think it will all depend on if he likes it in Raleigh or not. The Canes are certainly in a position to keep him.

Ok. So in sum: maybe.

I guess the other main q is: why do they dislike Necas so much? They drafted and developed this player to top 10 NHL scoring and he doesn’t have a MacKinnnon like Rats did.

Why do they want to potentially pay more on Rats then Necas?

 

[Spilot23]

Lost the trade !

Nvm we won the trade !

 

[Chrispy]

Ok. So in sum: maybe.

I guess the other main q is: why do they dislike Necas so much? They drafted and developed this player to top 10 NHL scoring and he doesn’t have a MacKinnnon like Rats did.

Why do they want to potentially pay more on Rats then Necas?

They liked Necas, but he was always the player listed when Carolina would try to upgrade to a top tier forward (Tkachuk package, Pettersson package, now Rantanen package.) I would say there are 3 reasons:

1) Long term team control of other young top players. Aho, Svech, Jarvis, Slavin all signed 8 year deals. Necas signed a 2 year deal to take him to UFA in 2026. It's likely Necas looks for a higher contract than anyone currently on the roster and he might leave for a more open play style. So re-signing Rantanen is a huge increase next year, but a smaller increase in 2 years over Necas.

2) Other than Robinson this year and Aho in 3x3 OT, Necas never seemed to mesh with any linemates. When things are going well for him he's a one man zone entry and scoring chance. When things are going poorly, he's Leeroy Jenkins on skates.

3) Necas has a ton of potential (speed, shot in particular) that make him an attractive piece to other teams.

Put all of that together, and Necas was frequently the piece Carolina would consider moving for a clear upgrade at forward. And while Necas is great, Rantanen is a clear upgrade.

 

[gritdash60]

Well maybe he should've let his agent know that

Surely didn't.

I think the big problem here is that Mikko's agent has a very different view of market value with CMac. And i dont blaim either side really, if the cap goes up like projected it's very reasonable for agents to tell their players not to sign for what currently is offered. There is always the IF though, ask Klingberg.

 

[NotCommitted]

I agree with most your points but did want to ask.. Rants is 28.. do you feel he's about to improve or has he peaked?

At 28 he's likely peaked, though he's also had extremely tough workload for years, not gonna average 23min a game with the Canes... so who knows, maybe he'll find out hockey is more fun at 19min a game. In any case it's always a bit iffy when players get near 30, some might be able to sustain their peak all the way into their early 30s, some guys fall off maybe a bit but still play at extremely high level and some guys just drop dead at 31 or something... but star level players are usually so good at some aspects of the game they can adjust and still stay very good even if not at their absolute peak anymore.

 

[Muffin]

They never offered anything starting with 12 (times 8 making it his #96).
Instead of working on a solution with deferred compensation and convincing Rants (who obviously wanted to stay) they didn‘t even inform him that he will be traded.
Canes were in talks with Avs in the summer, so it was not a surprising situation.
Avs clearly disrespected Rants with their offer and their communication (or lack of).

If I were Rantanen I‘d fire his agent. He didn‘t get the deal done and he got his agent traded against his wishes. I guess the Draisaitl negotiation clouded the assessment of the talks with the Avs…would save him a lot of money.

I mean Rantanen has the same agent as Blackwood. They didn't seem to have any trouble getting something done there.

 

[gritdash60]

At 28 he's likely peaked, though he's also had extremely tough workload for years, not gonna average 23min a game with the Canes... so who knows, maybe he'll find out hockey is more fun at 19min a game. In any case it's always a bit iffy when players get near 30, some might be able to sustain their peak all the way into their early 30s, some guys fall off maybe a bit but still play at extremely high level and some guys just drop dead at 31 or something... but star level players are usually so good at some aspects of the game they can adjust and still stay very good even if not at their absolute peak anymore.

Peaked or not, i have a feeling the team (not Avs or Canes) that signs him to 7x11-7x12 is going to be really happy for many years, or maybe for the whole contract.