Feb. 24: Rantanen will be out for at least two weeks and possibly longer, head coach Glen Gulutzan told reporters today, although he doesn’t expect the injury to end his regular season (via Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News). That will nonetheless put him out through the trade deadline and keep him out of at least Dallas’ next seven games.
Feb. 23: The Dallas Stars announced today that they have placed star forward Mikko Rantanen on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 20, the date of Finland’s loss to Canada in the quarterfinals of the recent Winter Olympic tournament.
Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan told the media today, including Stars Thoughts’ Robert Tiffin, that Rantanen is doubtful to play in the Stars’ first game back from the break, and is questionable beyond that point. According to Tiffin, Gulutzan “didn’t want to speculate” on Rantanen’s status beyond this week.
The team’s roster move suggests Rantanen isn’t set for an extended absence. Since his IR placement was made retroactive to Feb. 20, he will be eligible for activation as early as Feb. 27. If the team held a firm expectation that Rantanen would miss well over a week, it is less likely that they would have directly clarified the retroactive nature of his IR placement in their announcement post.
Rantanen’s injury didn’t end up costing Finland, as they cruised past Slovakia to earn a bronze medal. His injury, while seemingly minor in the grand scheme of the Stars’ season, threatens to seriously impact their odds of winning the games he’s set to miss. Rantanen is arguably Dallas’ most talented forward, currently leading the team in scoring with 69 points in 54 games.
Rantanen leads all Stars forwards in time-on-ice per game and is widely considered one of the game’s top wingers. Missing him, even for a handful of games, will hurt the Stars. With that said, Gulutzan’s comments combined with how the Stars have announced Rantanen’s IR placement suggest the star winger won’t be sidelined for too long, which is certainly good news for Dallas.
The Stars can’t be happy about this, And it all happened in a meaningless exhibition have a world away, During the season no less.
Imagine thinking the Olympics are a “meaningless exhibition”. Absolute clown comment.
You are welcome.
The Stars are firmly in the playoffs and it sounds like Mikko will be just fine. I dont think they’re gonna lose much sleep.
Also, go ahead and tell all the Olympians who participated this year that it was a meaningless exhibition. Both words are incorrect, regardless of how you personally feel about it. The players and coaches who felt honored to be selected by their countries to participate will strongly disagree with the meaningless part, and the fact that its an IIHF sanctioned tournament that goes down in the history books means it is not an Exhibition.
Are you standing, And waving a flag right now?
They are. NHL players shouldn’t be playing in the Olympics during the middle of the season.
The players chose to compete in the Olympics. Darn guys deciding how to live their lives instead of listening to the likes of you and Wilf.
Enjoy Wilf’s aimless babbling. He even put in some overtime and came up with a new name and photo.
Put the koolaid down, And think for yourself.
Put down the meth/heroin and stop gooning.
Somebody got their work hours cut at the pizza ranch.
Yea, YOU.
Good one Jimmy Kimmel.
Every player in the league would be extremely honored to represent their respective country in the Olympics if they were called upon. And as a Stars fan, Mikko isn’t arguably our best forward, he IS our best forward lol
Haha. I thought “arguably” was a strange way to put that too.
You can’t possibly know what any player is thinking, You don’t know any of them, And you aren’t in the lineup.
Neither are u
How do you know what “Every player in the league” is thinking? Expert at reading minds?
No one is a expert at reading minds, I’m just saying it’s patriotic
You lose credibility affirming things you a priori can’t possibly know to be true.
2 weeks minimum huh? Thats gonna sting a bit more than they originally let on. Still shouldn’t be a huge deal for Dallas though, they put themselves in a good enough spot.
Av’s would like to take a moment and thank the canes for necas