The big problem was that he was only able to produce with Mack. When separated and put in another line to drive his own he was never able to. That was the biggest issue for us. Paying him what he asked 14M$ don't know what the last offer (probably 12,5M$?) to play in the same line with Mack was counter productive and it was already noticeable with our depth.
Running a 2nd line of Mittelstadt, Parise and Lehkonen wasn't a recipe of success and would probably had the same exact issue about being a one line team again. Our GM gambled and lost because let's face it alot of experts and fans had Avs winning the cup or going in the finals because they saw that lineup being deep. Every pieces that we hoped was going to be a key for us didn't pan out. The Nelson, Necas (Canes warned about him in the playoffs tho), Coyle, goalie tandem and defense depth. On paper that was probably the deepest team we've had since 2022. I think we're putting too much of emphasis on Rantanen being the key here on why Avs lost when it's much more than that. Does having Rantanen make us beat the Stars? I don't know we've had him in the last 3 meetings and still didn't beat them.
I agree with alot of posters that not signing Kadri was our biggest mistake because we kept trading away our best assets and picks to keep failing on getting that #2C. If we've signed Kadri we would probably still have Byram and our 1st to be spent on depth. At the end I think Rantanen would still be an Avs. I never thought that Kadri would be the domino that is bringing us down.
The problem I have is that you already won a cup, this formula works. I'm sure 14 would be his starting point and you guys would probably counter with 10, if he signed with Dallas for 12, I don't see why he wouldn't sign in a place he loved for 12-13. Anyways, a formula that works and paying 1-2 million "extra" has to be better than an unknown formula.
But you already won with the core of Rants/Mack/Mak/Kush, yeah Kadri is gone and Landeskog probably won't be the same (Toews is still good), but by messing with the formula not only do you NOT guarantee success (Necas and Nelson are fine, but again even before the playoffs they weren't guaranteed to succeed), you could piss off some of the core in the room who loved Rants.
All teams that win make mistakes, lose good pieces, but trading away an in prime arguably top 5 playoff performer for basically 2 unproven guys (Necas and the money to get Nelson) is insane and it goes back to having too much success. In poker they call it winner's tilt, when you're winning you start doing stupid stuff because you're already so far ahead and up.
Rantanen was traded over 1-2 mill haggling
Rantanen was traded for an unproven piece (ended up basically being two unproven pieces)
Rantanen was easily a top 10 playoff performer (arguably top 5) even before these playoffs
And all of it came back to haunt them in the worst way possible. I brought up Toronto too because the passenger thing doesn't hold weight when you see the struggles 4 fantastic players can have together (surely 1-2 of them could passenger their way into fantastic stats, it hasn't happened in 9 years so far), so even in the worst case being a successful passenger is still infinitely more valuable (as proven by the cup) than the unknown of:
1.Maybe NOT being a successful passenger (Necas is a great player, but proved just being good isn't enough)
2.Maybe NOT being a passenger at all (like Rants proved)
3.Losing the room/a top 5 playoff player in his prime over basically 1-2 million dollars
