On Saturday, Mikko Rantanen scored his first goal in his first game for his third team of the season. At the start of a final period that saw Dallas nab a trio of goals to force Edmonton to white-knuckle a 5-4 win, the Stars' latest pickup comfortably one-timed a cross-ice feed from Matt Duchene. That play showed the kind of offensive skill that any Cup hopeful would love to add, even for a hefty bundle of picks.
On Sunday, as the Stars beat the Canucks 4-1 to win their seventh out of nine since the international break, Rantanen's contribution was a mere empty-net goal. But it still carried significance, because in just one weekend playing for Dallas, the Finnish winger has already equaled the entirety of his goal total from 13 games spent as a Carolina Hurricane.
“I think we’ll keep him,” quipped Stars head coach Pete DeBoer on Saturday.
That part, at least, is settled: The pending free agent signed an eight-year, $96 million contract upon the completion of the trade. But why didn't the Hurricanes, the fourth-best team in the East, hang onto a guy that has topped 100 points in each of his last two seasons? Why was one of the league's most fearsome stars (lowercase) getting bopped around from Denver to Raleigh and now Dallas? The answer all comes down to the contract. Rantanen's original team, the Avalanche, was crunched by Nathan MacKinnon's megadeal and Cale Makar's impending megadeal, and they didn't see a rational way that they could meet Mikko's asking price. To still get something longer-term out of the expiring agreement, they sent him to the Canes in a three-team deal that most notably netted them a 20-goal scorer in Martin Nečas.
Rantanen immediately brought a shine to a Hurricanes group that has consistently enjoyed regular-season success but has then been outplayed in the playoffs by squads with superior top lines. The combo of Rantanen and his countryman Sebastian Aho sounded amazing in theory, but the new guy was blindsided by the move, quickly had to go off and play for Finland in the 4 Nations, and ultimately decided that he would never fit in at this job. He turned down a deal with the Hurricanes, and the team chose to cut their losses and flip him to Dallas rather than keep him as a loan for the playoffs. All that's left is to wait for more specifics to leak about why, exactly, this set-up was such a flop.
“My sense of it from where I was sitting was this just didn’t feel like home to him," said Canes GM Eric Tulsky. "Everybody has their own personal needs. I think we have a great organization, I think we have a great coach, and I think we have a great locker room, but it doesn’t fit for everyone.”
Rantanen surely lost some money by staying off the open market, but in Dallas, as a Star, he can at least say that he seized his own destiny. And frankly, for as much as Rod Brind'Amour's Hurricanes have been a model franchise over his tenure, who wouldn't want to play for the Stars? Longtime GM Jim Nill, tasked with maintaining interest in a non-traditional hockey city, is not a believer in slow rebuilds. His aggressive mentality has fostered a team that made the conference final in back-to-back years and is itching to go even farther. The way they continue to mix excellent young talent development with extended primes for guys in their 30s should make them the envy of the rest of the league. Add to the mix Rantanen's ability to both make his teammates better and create for himself, and Western Conference leaders Winnipeg must feel breath on their necks.
Even with injuries to 25-year-old defensive backbone Miro Heiskanen and 33-year-old scoring stalwart Tyler Seguin, you have to work pretty hard to find faults in these Stars. Matt Duchene, at 34, could be outpacing himself a little with his 25 goals. Jake Oettinger, who got outdueled badly by Skinner in the last three games of their playoff meeting last spring, could still get shaky when it matters most. They have a rookie whose first name is "Mavrik." And ... that's basically it. The 23-year-old Thomas Harley is really stepping up in Heiskanen's absence. Jason Robertson, their offensive leader from the wing, is riding an eight-game point streak. The precocious Wyatt Johnston is showing no signs of slowing down in his third year in the league. Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov are both contributing at age 35. And Roope Hintz, despite getting bloodied on Saturday, has spent most of his year confounding defenses with his trademark bursts of speed.
Without Mikko Rantanen, Dallas was a really good team. With him for the next eight years? The stars are the limit.
