Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen has been one of the top-scoring players in the NHL over the past several seasons. His contract is set to expire this summer, making him arguably the top pending UFA in the league. Colorado has been trying to re-sign him but to this point, obviously no deal has been reached yet.
It doesn’t seem like the two sides are particularly close either. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported in a recent segment on Amazon Prime (Twitter link) that the two sides are believed to effectively be at a stalemate in their discussions.
Seravalli reports that the Avs are hoping to keep Rantanen’s price tag below the $12.6MM that Nathan MacKinnon makes. However, Rantanen’s camp is more interested in taking aim at Leon Draisaitl’s record-breaking contract, one that begins next season and carries a $14MM cap charge. Suffice it to say, that’s a pretty significant cap to try to bridge.
The 28-year-old had a very strong first half of the season, picking up 25 goals and 37 assists in his first 46 games though a league-high 13 empty-net points help inflate those totals a bit. Nonetheless, Rantanen finds himself on pace to surpass the 100-point mark for the third straight year while surpassing his career high of 105, putting himself in a great position heading into his first time potentially testing the market.
Since the 2020-21 season, only three players have recorded more points than the 429 that Rantanen has put up in a 335-game span. Two of them have already been mentioned here as the benchmarks that both sides are working with while the other is Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. All things considered, that’s quite the company to be in. Being in that tier of scorers means that Rantanen should get offers around the price point he’s believed to be seeking if he hits the open market, especially if the Upper Limit of the salary cap goes up by more than the current maximum of 5% as some expect.
Even with a higher-than-expected cap, affording a deal of that magnitude for Rantanen could be difficult for Colorado. Per PuckPedia, they have just over $79MM on the books for next season with 16 players on their current roster under contract. Even if they are able to get him in just below MacKinnon at, say, $12.5MM per year, they’d be over $91MM with several players still needing to be signed to get to the minimum-sized roster. If Gabriel Landeskog remains unable to play, they’d have more wiggle room with him on LTIR but Landeskog is still trying to get back to game action this season so at this point, management can’t count on that potential flexibility being available to them.
This could be a scenario where deferred money could help solve the issue on both sides. As we’ve seen multiple times this season, players who take deferred money carry a lower cap charge. Accordingly, it’s possible for Rantanen’s camp to get around $14MM per season on average but include enough deferred money to keep the cap hit below MacKinnon’s. Of course, Rantanen would have to agree to such an arrangement and considering he’s set to be the top player on the open market, he’ll undoubtedly receive offers that won’t have deferrals in there.
It doesn’t appear as if talks will be picking up right away either. Instead, Seravalli, who noted that the team has no interest in moving him should an agreement not be reached, relays that discussions are likely to resume during the break in mid-February. We’ll see if the next few weeks enable the two sides to bridge the gap or if the stalemate will last beyond that.
Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.
I don’t see Mikko Rantanen staying in Colorado. Where he’ll end up is anyone’s guess but I truly feel he’s going to test the marketplace this summer & will be a hot commodity in free agency. I don’t think Colorado will be able to retain him unless Colorado makes drastic changes to their roster to create significant cap space for him which doesn’t seem all that likely.
I have to disagree. Ratanen will remain in colorado.
For the folks calling for a nichushkin dump: sorry. That’s one seems pretty difficult. At least not while getting value in return.
It’s girard who has to go. While he’s generally played better since his PAP stint last season, he isn’t providing the value his cap hit would suggest, and he only has a 9 team NTC I believe.
I’ll be very curious to see how the landeskog situation plays out, as that obviously has sizeable impact on this scenario. It seems counterintuitive to me to think that a team would risk losing a proven asset like rantanen just for the hope of an aging, oft-injured landeskog return after 3 years out and no guarantee that he will regain form.
The short term future of this team is destined to follow the toronto model of being extremely top heavy with questionable to poor depth.
Just to add to this a bit.
Colton could end up a casualty, so could Manson.
That toews contract, as effective as he is, certainly contributes to the hurdle that the Avs brass has to figure out here, but there’s just no way that rantanen walks out the door. Especially now that colorado is getting winning goaltending. It would push the window toward closing, not further open.
You can disagree but the odds are not in favor of Colorado retaining Rantanen especially for $14M AAV. The fact that they are pushing to get a deal under $12.5M AAV & he’s not budging on his stance, shows Colorado is in serious trouble of not retaining him. He’s out for a big payday & it appears he doesn’t care if he stays or goes.
Colorado’s front office knows if he stays at $14M AAV that it’s going to put them in a major financial bind & would have to make a variety of moves that they may not be able to make financially work let alone at the sacrifice of the team, just to accommodate Rantanen’s huge deal. It also would likely have them ending up having little cap space to fill out the overall roster.
Unless Rantanen changes his financial stance, he most surely hits the open market this summer.
What you’re suggesting seems astute re: Girard, Manson, Colton.. but Avs appear to be in a low-leverage position so I’m curious to see what they can bargain!
All respect to everyone but none of us work in the front office and I don’t believe anyone is Mikko or his agent here. This clickbait is frankly ridiculous. Seravalli says the two sides are very far apart and unlikely to get a deal done. Friedman says otherwise. Everyone has an opinion but to declare ” it appears he doesn’t care if he stays or goes” is to seriously ignore how he’s playing. If you think his effort and attitude suggest that he doesn’t care, we will agree to disagree. Yes, the organization will likely have to clear some salary but with the cap going up and Rantanen’s importance to their Cup aspirations, it’s highly unlikely they will let him walk.
To the sharks with you at 15 a year
Yuck.
Keep Rantanen, Dump Nichushkin, He can’t be trusted!
That’s far easier said than done lol
Obviously Vegas does something every year at the TDL and Nichushkin just feels like exactly the player they’d go after. With his NMC switching to a 12 team no trade at the end of this season, this might be his only chance to have some say in a move.
Just a thought…
Send him to the Canes for Svecth and Drury
Why would the Canes trade a 24yr old borderline star signed at a reasonable deal for 8 years for a rental?
Wild should place their bid.
Kaprizov – Rantanen duo would make them unstoppable!
Sign and trade to NYR for Laffy and a 1st. Mikko gets $13.5 million x 8
We learned from the Blackhawks experience that if you pay 5 or 6 of your best players top dollar contracts, the rest of the team will be made up of marginal talent and you’ll soon have to do a full rebuild. Clearly, superstars are fine with that. Money > Cup.
You don’t seem to be aware that the Blackhawks won three Cups.
No, I completely missed that (insert eye roll emogi).
How well have the Hawks done since they handed out those big contracts? That’s the point.