The Edmonton Oilers were reportedly one of four teams that Mikko Rantanen was willing to be traded and sign with, according to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta.
Pagnotta was co-host alongside Nick Alberga during Wednesday’s edition of Leafs Morning Take where he reported on how things went for Rantanen leading up to his trade to the Dallas Stars on Friday. He reported that the Oilers were on the short list of teams that the star forward was keen on joining if a trade could be worked out.
“There was a four-team preferred list. There were four teams that, ‘Yeah, these are our top four teams that we’d like to go to,'” he said. “And my understanding is obviously Dallas, Florida, Toronto, and Edmonton. Those were the four preferred team list. And I can confirm with a million percent certainty that he was willing to sign in Toronto and he was willing to sign in Edmonton.”
Pagnotta noted that there were other teams in the mix who tried to acquire Rantanen in the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings, but talks did not get far because he did not prefer to sign with them. The Panthers had a busy trade deadline and likely were short on assets to get a deal done so they shifted their focus to acquiring Brad Marchand instead.
As for the Oilers, while they were on the list of teams he would have been willing to join, the deal did not materialize because they did not have enough to make a trade work.
“ Edmonton. He would have entered those discussions because they were on his list,” Pagnotta said. “ But they had no assets to trade. So the trade discussions, they never really evolved, not to the extent of Toronto and certainly not of Dallas.”
The Leafs reportedly made a strong push to acquire Rantanen and there were a lot of back and forths between them and the Carolina Hurricanes. It started with a trade with Mitch Marner as the centrepiece, which he declined to waive his no-movement clause citing his desire to remain in Toronto. Then the Hurricanes asked about a package centered around Matthew Knies to which the Leafs declined.
The final offer on Toronto’s end included two prospects, the two firsts, and another piece, but it was not made clear who that was. What ultimately tipped the scales in the Stars’ favour was the inclusion of a proven young NHLer in Logan Stankoven along with the Hurricanes’ preference to send Rantanen out west.
The Oilers eventually pivoted their focus to acquiring defenceman Jake Walman from the San Jose Sharks, along with their other trade earlier in the week to acquire Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins. The two additions certainly address Edmonton’s needs and the fans are no doubt pleased with what the team ended up with, but one has to wonder how different things would have played out had they gotten Rantanen instead.
Adding a superstar winger alongside the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl would have given the Oilers one of the most formidable forward cores in the NHL for the rest of this season and next. It is unclear how much different that contract would have been compared to what he got from Dallas (eight years, $12 million AAV), though it is fair to assume it would have been slightly higher.
Though the salary cap is expected to jump up significantly over the next few years, the addition of Rantanen would have complicated things with McDavid’s expiring contract. There is a world where they either have no room to extend him or have to sacrifice significant portions of their roster to get the deal done.
In any case, we will never know for sure exactly how it would have all gone down because Rantanen is a Star for the rest of his prime. However, we now know that he would have been good with being traded to and signing an extension with the Oilers had they had the assets to get a deal done.
