West Notes: Rantanen, Suter, Milne

Colorado Avalanche reporter Adrian Dater wrote on his Substack today that forward Mikko Rantanen has said that he won’t hold contract extension talks with the Avalanche during the regular season. This disputes a report from earlier this summer that the two sides were close to a new deal, and it also is in stark contrast to what Meghan Angley reported yesterday when Colorado general manager Chris MacFarland said he didn’t have concerns about the extension talks with Rantanen spilling into the season.

Dater cites NHL sources for his reporting, but it is possible that Rantanen’s camp is posturing and using the threat of his impending free agency next summer to create some urgency around Avalanche management. However, if Colorado does feel that they can’t re-sign Rantanen it will certainly make for an interesting season as they could look to trade the 28-year-old to one of the teams that aren’t on his nine-team no-trade list.

In other Western Conference notes:

• Thomas Drance of The Athletic tweeted that Vancouver Canucks forward Pius Suter is questionable for the Canucks season opener against Calgary this evening. Suter has been dealing with an upper-body injury and will be a game-time decision tonight. He practiced on the Canucks third line the last few days but doesn’t appear to be fully healthy to start the regular season. If he can’t go, then Aatu Raty will likely take his spot. The 28-year-old is entering the second season of the two-year $3.2MM contract he signed with Vancouver last summer and was a bargain last year, tallying 14 goals and 15 assists in 67 games.
• The Minnesota Wild have activated forward Michael Milne and assigned him to their AHL affiliate in Iowa. Milne was a third-round pick of the Wild back in 2022 and has yet to see NHL action in his first two professional seasons. The 22-year-old has dressed in 97 AHL games over the last two years, tallying 15 goals and 19 assists. Milne could be destined for Iowa’s bottom six this season where he will look to continue to be a force in the defensive zone and a puck retrieval machine.