The Edmonton Oilers <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/the-day-after-colorado-avalanche-6-edmonton-oilers-5-ot-oilers-season-ends-a-resounding-success">got a front-row seat</a> to the 2021-22 Stanley Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche.

They dropped two of three regular season games and got absolutely bowled over by them in the Western Conference Finals that year, getting swept in four games. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog.
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Colorado was stacked, but now just three years later, only two of those players truly remain. MacKinnon and Makar will be Avs for life, while Landeskog hasn&#8217;t played in an NHL game since, dealing with significant issues in his knee.
Mikko Rantanen, meanwhile, just found himself traded on Friday in a <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/carolina-hurricanes-colorado-avalanche-swap-mikko-rantanen-martin-necas-three-team-trade-with-chicago-blackhawks-taylor-hall">stone-cold stunning trade</a> that has shaken the league and significantly shifted the power balance. It&#8217;s one of the biggest trades in the NHL in the last decade. Think Tkachuk for Huberdeau and Weegar. Eichel for Tuch and Krebs. Stone for Brannstrom and Lindberg.
Trades like these where a team picks up a bonafide top-10 or top-15 player in the league happen rarely. In the cases of those three aforementioned deals, the moves all resulted in the team acquiring the top talent winning a Stanley Cup in the proceeding years, and that&#8217;s what Eric Tulsky&#8217;s Carolina Hurricanes will hope for now. That team has struggled to get over the hump the last number of years, lacking a big-time player who takes their game to another level in the post-season. This trade is nothing short of a massive win for them, because that&#8217;s exactly what Rantanen is.
It&#8217;s not as if they needed to perform major surgery for this deal to culminate. They brought in 50 percent retained and also picked up Taylor Hall in the three-team deal, for the price of Martin Necas, Jack Drury, second, third and fourth-round picks. They made out like bandits — for now.
What confounds in this deal is the mindset of the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche. Let&#8217;s start in the Windy City, where they jammed up a retainment slot for the cost of a third-round pick, while also adding in Hall. What is Kyle Davidson doing?
Hall expressed he wanted to stay in Chicago — for some reason or another. While he&#8217;s been the subject of trade rumours for weeks, even finding himself healthy-scratched, they likely could&#8217;ve moved him closer to the deadline for a better draft pick, retaining half of his salary. If they want to move off any other players in a sell-off closer to the deadline, their returns could be hampered. This <a href="https://x.com/TicTacTOmar/status/1883008033560900019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweet summarized things</a> pretty well. 
Let&#8217;s not let the Avalanche off easy here, either.
A general consensus on why they made this deal is this: Leon Draisaitl reset the market, and Rantanen, a pending unrestricted free agent, wanted something in his range. It&#8217;s a more than fair ask, but one that the Avalanche drew a line in the sand on given MacKinnon&#8217;s then market-setting $12.6-million deal. Couple that with the fact an extension for Makar needs to be in place for the start of the 2027-28 season, and a $14-million deal just wasn&#8217;t in the cards for Colorado. Talks weren&#8217;t going well. Okay, fair enough.
This deal happened largely in the dark. Daily Faceoff&#8217;s Frank Seravalli <a href="https://x.com/SportsOnPrimeCA/status/1880076685439050157">mentioned the possibility</a> of Rantanen being moved a week ago, but nobody seemed to think that kind of a deal would be consummated now. What was the rush for Chris MacFarland?
Necas, Drury, a second and a fourth is a fine return, but it&#8217;s not as if this is an otherworldly return. Necas can be thought of a Rantanen-lite, and it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise in the least to see him breakout playing with the likes of MacKinnon and Makar, but he doesn&#8217;t have that same game-breaking level of play. At least right now.
Drury? Well, he remains a relative unknown in the grand scheme of things. He scored eight goals and 27 points in 74 games last year, but the 24-year-old offence has taken a step back this season. An excellent defensive player, he&#8217;s also going to see a dip in the quality of his teammates going from Carolina&#8217;s bottom-six to Colorado&#8217;s.
What feels underwhelming in it all is that it doesn&#8217;t seem as if the Avalanche opened up the market to bidding on Rantanen. This deal, rather, seems like it was consummated in a bubble. Carolina needed a facilitator in the deal to bring down Rantanen&#8217;s salary from $9.25-million to $4.63-million and that&#8217;s where Chicago entered the conversation, doing solid work to somehow convince Chicago to add in Hall, a fine middle-six winger.
It&#8217;s not as if there aren&#8217;t other teams with oodles of cap space who, in theory, could act as facilitators. The Columbus Blue Jackets have three open retention slots with the league&#8217;s most cap space, a projected $18.75-million, according to PuckPedia. The Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks have $17.79-million and $17.17-million in cap space, each with two retention slots available. Were there any phone calls made their way? It appears not.
The Athletic&#8217;s Chris Johnston <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6087363/2025/01/24/hurricanes-avalanche-mikko-rantanen-trade/">quoted a league executive</a> who said “I’m not completely surprised, but we didn’t hear a thing.” The field of suitors, Johnston added, was likely small, so much so that in recent days he said there was one: the Hurricanes. But there&#8217;s still six weeks until the trade deadline — ample time for a hungry team to build an appetite and sort out how to make the salary cap implications work.
It just appears as if Tulsky and the Hurricanes were simply too hungry to pass up this buffet and who can blame them? There&#8217;s an inherent risk in the deal, as Johnston reported there were no advanced discussions about an extension, meaning this deal has the chance to blow up in everybody&#8217;s face.
For Colorado, their next steps will be critical. The team has holes up the middle the Drury won&#8217;t fix, and there&#8217;s a need for further depth in the forward ranks, and on the blue line. Sitting in a Wild Card spot today, MacFarland has his work cut out for him.
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Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
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Colorado Avalanche Carolina Hurricanes Mikko Rantanen

The Edmonton Oilers <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/the-day-after-colorado-avalanche-6-edmonton-oilers-5-ot-oilers-season-ends-a-resounding-success">got a front-row seat</a> to the 2021-22 Stanley Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche.



They dropped two of three regular season games and got absolutely bowled over by them in the Western Conference Finals that year, getting swept in four games. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog.
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Colorado was stacked, but now just three years later, only two of those players truly remain. MacKinnon and Makar will be Avs for life, while Landeskog hasn't played in an NHL game since, dealing with significant issues in his knee.

Mikko Rantanen, meanwhile, just found himself traded on Friday in a <a href="https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/carolina-hurricanes-colorado-avalanche-swap-mikko-rantanen-martin-necas-three-team-trade-with-chicago-blackhawks-taylor-hall">stone-cold stunning trade</a> that has shaken the league and significantly shifted the power balance. It's one of the biggest trades in the NHL in the last decade. Think Tkachuk for Huberdeau and Weegar. Eichel for Tuch and Krebs. Stone for Brannstrom and Lindberg.

Trades like these where a team picks up a bonafide top-10 or top-15 player in the league happen rarely. In the cases of those three aforementioned deals, the moves all resulted in the team acquiring the top talent winning a Stanley Cup in the proceeding years, and that's what Eric Tulsky's Carolina Hurricanes will hope for now. That team has struggled to get over the hump the last number of years, lacking a big-time player who takes their game to another level in the post-season. This trade is nothing short of a massive win for them, because that's exactly what Rantanen is.

It's not as if they needed to perform major surgery for this deal to culminate. They brought in 50 percent retained and also picked up Taylor Hall in the three-team deal, for the price of Martin Necas, Jack Drury, second, third and fourth-round picks. They made out like bandits — for now.

What confounds in this deal is the mindset of the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche. Let's start in the Windy City, where they jammed up a retainment slot for the cost of a third-round pick, while also adding in Hall. What is Kyle Davidson doing?

Hall expressed he wanted to stay in Chicago — for some reason or another. While he's been the subject of trade rumours for weeks, even finding himself healthy-scratched, they likely could've moved him closer to the deadline for a better draft pick, retaining half of his salary. If they want to move off any other players in a sell-off closer to the deadline, their returns could be hampered. This <a href="https://x.com/TicTacTOmar/status/1883008033560900019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweet summarized things</a> pretty well. 

Let's not let the Avalanche off easy here, either.

A general consensus on why they made this deal is this: Leon Draisaitl reset the market, and Rantanen, a pending unrestricted free agent, wanted something in his range. It's a more than fair ask, but one that the Avalanche drew a line in the sand on given MacKinnon's then market-setting $12.6-million deal. Couple that with the fact an extension for Makar needs to be in place for the start of the 2027-28 season, and a $14-million deal just wasn't in the cards for Colorado. Talks weren't going well. Okay, fair enough.

This deal happened largely in the dark. Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli <a href="https://x.com/SportsOnPrimeCA/status/1880076685439050157">mentioned the possibility</a> of Rantanen being moved a week ago, but nobody seemed to think that kind of a deal would be consummated now. What was the rush for Chris MacFarland?

Necas, Drury, a second and a fourth is a fine return, but it's not as if this is an otherworldly return. Necas can be thought of a Rantanen-lite, and it wouldn't be a surprise in the least to see him breakout playing with the likes of MacKinnon and Makar, but he doesn't have that same game-breaking level of play. At least right now.

Drury? Well, he remains a relative unknown in the grand scheme of things. He scored eight goals and 27 points in 74 games last year, but the 24-year-old offence has taken a step back this season. An excellent defensive player, he's also going to see a dip in the quality of his teammates going from Carolina's bottom-six to Colorado's.

What feels underwhelming in it all is that it doesn't seem as if the Avalanche opened up the market to bidding on Rantanen. This deal, rather, seems like it was consummated in a bubble. Carolina needed a facilitator in the deal to bring down Rantanen's salary from $9.25-million to $4.63-million and that's where Chicago entered the conversation, doing solid work to somehow convince Chicago to add in Hall, a fine middle-six winger.

It's not as if there aren't other teams with oodles of cap space who, in theory, could act as facilitators. The Columbus Blue Jackets have three open retention slots with the league's most cap space, a projected $18.75-million, according to PuckPedia. The Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks have $17.79-million and $17.17-million in cap space, each with two retention slots available. Were there any phone calls made their way? It appears not.

The Athletic's Chris Johnston <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6087363/2025/01/24/hurricanes-avalanche-mikko-rantanen-trade/">quoted a league executive</a> who said “I’m not completely surprised, but we didn’t hear a thing.” The field of suitors, Johnston added, was likely small, so much so that in recent days he said there was one: the Hurricanes. But there's still six weeks until the trade deadline — ample time for a hungry team to build an appetite and sort out how to make the salary cap implications work.

It just appears as if Tulsky and the Hurricanes were simply too hungry to pass up this buffet and who can blame them? There's an inherent risk in the deal, as Johnston reported there were no advanced discussions about an extension, meaning this deal has the chance to blow up in everybody's face.

For Colorado, their next steps will be critical. The team has holes up the middle the Drury won't fix, and there's a need for further depth in the forward ranks, and on the blue line. Sitting in a Wild Card spot today, MacFarland has his work cut out for him.

<hr />

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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