4:00 p.m.: Official now, Rantanen is a Star. The deal is accurate as reported aside from the 2027 first-round pick being a 2028 selection instead. Both first-rounders are top 10 protected.
12:55 p.m.: The Stars placed defenseman Miro Heiskanen on long-term injured reserve today, per PuckPedia. The move opens up some additional cap flexibility with the Rantanen pickup and still leaves them with roughly $10MM in flexibility to add another asset before the deadline, assuming the move indicates Heiskanen is done for the regular season following knee surgery early last month. Additionally, Seravalli reports Rantanen receives a full no-movement clause in his contract.
11:31 a.m.: The Stars will get an extension done for winger Mikko Rantanen and acquire him in a blockbuster deal with the Hurricanes. Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, it’ll be an eight-year contract worth $96MM, worth a cap hit of $12MM. Jeff Marek of Daily Faceoff reports Dallas is sending rookie forward Logan Stankoven and a pair of first-rounders to Carolina in return. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff confirms the picks are the Stars’ own 2026 and 2027 selections, leaving Dallas without a first-round pick until 2028. The Hurricanes are also receiving a pair of third-round picks in the deal, per Emily Kaplan of ESPN. Those picks are also Dallas’ 2026 and 2027 selections, per Seravalli.
Dallas thus holds firm at their initial offer to the superstar winger, who will now be traded twice in under two months. Darren Dreger of TSN reported earlier today the $96MM offer was “well short” of what Rantanen would accept to get a deal to the Stars across the finish line. However, he’ll take the under-market value deal to join the league’s deepest offense in Dallas.
Rantanen notably accepts a lesser extension than what Carolina offered him: an eight-year contract worth at least $100MM in total with a $12.5MM AAV. He’ll likely earn more in take-home pay in a lower-tax state in Texas, but it’s still clear Dallas was a preferable long-term destination for the Finnish star.
The 28-year-old finds his long-term home in the same division as his longtime home in Colorado, where he was coming off back-to-back 100-point seasons before failed extension discussions with the Avs precipitated his move to Carolina in January. Colorado’s best offer on an eight-year deal reportedly fell in the $11MM range, so he’s getting more before-tax dollars by meandering his way toward his former Central Division rival.
Rantanen’s reputation needs no introduction, especially since the scale of a player of his caliber moving mid-season was covered extensively when he was traded to the Canes. The 2015 10th overall pick and 2022 Stanley Cup champion with the Avs has produced well over a point per game over his 10-year career, including a raucous 371 points in 299 games since the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign. On a per-game basis, only Nikita Kucherov, David Pastrňák, and Mitch Marner have scored more over the past decade among right wings.
Despite keeping up his production in Colorado whenever he was briefly separated from franchise center Nathan MacKinnon, he simply didn’t click alongside Sebastian Aho during his short stint in Raleigh. Rantanen managed just 2-4–6 in 13 games for the Canes, shooting at 5% and averaging under 20 minutes per game for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign. His possession impacts were expectedly sterling, posting a 64.1 CF% at even strength, but it just didn’t translate to the point totals he’s used to producing.
Rantanen should immediately slot in as Dallas’ first-line right winger alongside Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson, filling the hole vacated by Joe Pavelski when he retired last offseason. They’ve rotated multiple players in that role throughout the season, including Stankoven, while also elevating Evgenii Dadonov and Wyatt Johnston from their usual third-line homes at times to ride shotgun. That instability will end with the Robertson-Hintz duo receiving their most talented complement yet out of an already fairly strong group over the course of their careers.
Carolina has now remained unable to upgrade their top-six throughout the year, taking a winding road from Martin Nečas to Rantanen to now, presumptively, the 22-year-old Stankoven getting an extended run in first or second-line minutes barring a subsequent trade. They will open up roughly $3.8MM in cap space in the trade, assuming no other roster players are involved.
Stankoven is a significant loss for the Stars in this deal off their active roster. After performing well in a late-season call-up last year, he’s posted 9-20–29 in 59 showings for Dallas in 2024-25 while averaging north of 15 minutes per game. Selected 47th overall in 2021, he’s already outperforming his draft billing. He’s a significant injection to a Hurricanes pool of U-23 players that already ranks among the strongest in the league. Dallas, though, determined him expendable to land a top-line talent with names like Johnston and Mavrik Bourque still in the system as current and likely future top-six threats.
It would make sense for the Canes to flip one of the first-rounders they’ve acquired for a big-fish forward in the next few hours. They already had their entire arsenal of firsts over the next few years, a significant excess for a team in a playoff contention window.
When Rantanen’s extension is registered, the Stars will be down to $13.8MM in cap space for next season with eight open roster spots. That’s not nearly enough cash to re-sign all of their pending free agents, a list that includes Johnston on the restricted front and top-nine forwards Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund, and Dadonov as unrestricted assets. It’s likely only one of that group will be returning next season unless they trade away a salary currently on the books for 2025-26.
Nonetheless, Rantanen’s $12MM AAV currently makes him the fifth-highest-paid player in the league next season behind Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, and his former teammate in MacKinnon. He will remain in a Stars uniform through the 2032-33 season and will be 36 years old when his contract expires.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Less to leave… ouch!
LETS FOOKING GOOOOOO!
Dreger vs Friedman. Reputations on the line!
I mean, on Carolina’s side, they should’ve known he was going to want $12 mill per year! If not their GM had a major brain fart. Because the rumored return doesn’t make them better from what the originally had in Necas.
Money wasn’t the issue, Carolina was….
he clearly wasn’t clicking here and why would they keep a guy who isn’t working and didn’t want to stay?
They offered more. Can’t avoid taxes though
Exactly. He either really wanted to go to Dallas, really didn’t want to be in Carolina, or both.
both States have REALLY low Tax rates, Colorado i believe had higher rates than North Carolina and Texas
It does, because they just got a kings ransom for 1.5 years of Necas.
Texas has none and North Carolina isn’t exactly low.
That’s a rough one for Colorado.
When they lift the Cup they won’t think so…
Colorado is fine. They pretty clearly weren’t going to pay him what he wanted, so it’s better to have moved him than lose him for nothing, deepen the lineup, and Necas and Drury are playing well. Avs fans won’t love seeing Mikko in Dallas, but they’ve got to feeling good about their team regardless.
They made out really well on this. Sucks he went to dallas, but I think he signs there anyways in the off-season
Stars at Avalanche – March 16th on TNT!
He’s already signing an extension anyway
Necas and drury are both great players. Miko rantanen is a turd and showed he couldn’t play on the hurricanes without being around other star players. He’s dog water in my opinion. Anyone can play well with a star studded line up.
He doesn’t have to pay state income tax living in Texas. He also gets that 8th year at $12 million when other teams could only offer 7 years. I don’t think it’s that much of an underpay considering what will actually end up in his bank account.
LOL!!! Why the hell didn’t he just sign the deal in Colorado then? 8 yrs x 12.5MM = 100MM. WTF???
Finish Mafia is already in Dallas, and locked up.
Worth noting Texas doesn’t have a state income tax.
But they have higher property taxes.
This is all so stupid. If you’re that rich you can live wherever you want. I know I for one wouldn’t trade the income tax rates just so I could have a an extra thousand square feet of house in suburban Fort Worth.
Probably wanted to play with his friends….
this here. amongst no state taxes, he’ll keep more of it.
Not necessarily so anymore. Texas had a sizable budget surplus in the last legislative session and that money led to lower school property taxes throughout the state. The same situation is so in this present legislative session.
probably finally factored in the tax savings and decided this made a ton of sense financially.
This one worries me unless Tyler’s career is done.We need d men jim.
I really hope Johnston isn’t involved in this deal.
hes not.
hope your right
I feel this one, BUT… hear me out
Rantanen.
peace out, Stanky Leg.
don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Rants and his agent butchered all of this!
anD the return is?
Probably Stank, first rounder. maybe bischel — but I doubt it. Also can see a roster player like dumba going back
But you have to live in Texas…ugh
Stank and Two First Rounders…..
Absolute heist.
The fact that Dallas avoided trading Johnston here is impressive by GM Jim Nill what overall those 2 firsts will be in the back end of thd 1st round makes this a really good deal for Dallas, Stankoven is fast and will fit in with Carolina
extended him instead. Nill is a magician.
Eric Tulsky butchered this from day one. WOW! He lost Drury, Rantanen, And Necas, For a 1st, And Stankoven. Eric Tulsky, YOU ARE FIRED!!!!
Have to think Carolina flips some of these assets for a top 6 forward. But this is great for Dallas that they didn’t part with Johnston or their 1st round pick from 2024, Emil Hemming.
Necas, Drury, a 2nd, a 4th for…
Stank and two 1st…
…Canes also got Hall.
Not bad… not Rantanen.
CAR traded for Rantanen to try to move to the top of the pack of Cup contenders.
Now, they are rebuilding?
I assume they are going to trade at least one of those picks, so we’ll see what they do, but…looks like an own goal of Steve Smith level.
Mikko Rantanen has found his home in Dallas. He should be a good fit there. Dallas does have a number of FA this offseason season as they carry only $13.8M as some adjustments to the roster will happen for sure but in the end, they got a top talent in Rantanen.
Meanwhile, Carolina gets Logan Stankoven which is a young nice piece to the roster. However, Carolina is still missing that major top-six piece. One has to assume Carolina could set their sights on Brock Boeser (who seems likely to hit the market) or Mitch Marner (if he hits the market) this offseason.
The Canes get the right-handed center they have coveted since being priced out on Trocheck. So this is basically two firsts, Necas’ money for a top six forward, and they put some Stank on it?
So basically a punt on an undersized middle six prospect, a couple of really late 1st’s and some cap space.
Maybe it will work out for them. Who knows?
To summarize, the Canes traded a point per game player and another player off the roster for an undersized rookie who will take Drury’s spot. That’s not a trade a contender makes.
“Lower tax rate…”
Try none.
The real losers in this trade…anyone who bought a #96 Canes jersey. It was nice knowing ya Mikko. You played poorly and whined for a couple of weeks but I guess you got your money. Canes over everybody!
Safe to say this didn’t work out well for Dundon. Also safe to say the Canes are no longer Cup contenders.
I offer Givani Smith for Rantanen.
So, basically the hurricanes gave up necas and so forth for a couple of 1st round picks. and a guy named Nils Juntorp. Brindamor definitely needs to be fired. Necas and drury were great players.
Drury is an average NHL player at best.
Great trade. I would’ve traded Necas remaining contract for Stankhoven straight up. Four picks was the icing.
$96M for #96