The trades in the NHL can sometimes be confusing. Indeed, this rule also applies to veteran fans who have been watching the sport for a long time, because that’s what gives it the essence of unpredictability, keeping up the hype among the community. Recently, a similar trade took place in the mid-season between the Colorado Avalanche, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Chicago Blackhawks, involving several star players such as Mikko Rantanen.

Indeed, no one expected the Aves to trade their star forward mid-season to the Canes. Surprising? Surely! But this has been the scene for a long time. No fan is 100% aware of what is happening behind the scenes of these NHL team HQs unless a person of interest speaks up. After a few days of this massive trade, Carolina’s general manager shared his thoughts on their team’s opportunistic acquisition of Rantanen, revealing a few intriguing details. 

So do you remember what exactly happened in the three-way trade involving the Aves, the Canes, and the Hawks? If not, then let me remind you! The major deal earned Carolina three players who were Mikko Rantanen, Taylor Hall, and Nils Juntorp. Moving to Colorado, they received Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a 2025 2nd-round pick, and a 2026 4th-round pick. And what about Chicago? They were pleased with a 2025 third-round pick.

The involvement of these teams in the mid-season trade was very random, and watching Rantanen getting traded off to the Canes didn’t sit well with many fans out there. There were questions everywhere, and even during an episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek, the host of the show on YouTube, he had a similar doubt that he asked the Hurricanes’ general manager, Eric Tulsky. Indeed, he must have been in the loop about this particular three-way deal for a long time, and he can only share some unknown details about it.

So speaking to Jeff, Eric opened up about grabbing Rantanen on the deal, stating, “I mean, I would say in the last couple of weeks is when it got especially serious. Um, you know, I think the final touch was really everybody being ready to switch from conversations about what it might look like to actually pulling the trigger. Um, and there were some pieces involved in the deal that started to have some time pressure, um, and so that was ultimately the impetus.” Surely, there were discussions behind the scenes, and the management knew that Rantanen was the best pick they could have.

“Um, you know, it was a complicated deal where we were looking at multiple things; Colorado was looking at multiple things; Chicago was looking at multiple things, and so if any one of those has a deadline, then everybody else needs to figure out what they want to do,” said Tulsky. The three teams were looking forward to making the most out of the mid-season trade, and the Canes knew that they needed to have the star forward on the team. Indeed, Rantanen has been a top player in the current season, but what was his reaction when he got to know that he was traded from the Aves to the Canes?

Mikko Rantanen was as surprised as the fans

Literally, no one expected Mikko Rantanen to be traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. And why is that? Let us look at the statistics for the forward with the Colorado Avalanche on the rink. With the Aves, Rantanen played 49 games and scored 25 goals, 39 assists, and had 64 points. Indeed, the statistics put him out as one of the top scorers in the league in the current season, but still he got traded off to the Canes.

What was Rantanen’s response to this? “I was shocked yesterday. I was surprised. I don’t really want to get into too many details, but it was a surprise for sure,” said the former Aves’ forward. Back in September 2019, Rantanen signed a six-year, $55.5 million contract with Colorado, with an AAV of $9.25 million. However, his contract will be ending in the current season, and that might be a reason for the Aves to make this tough decision. But why not offer a contract extension? 

Deals in the NHL come to the top players in the league, and Rantanen is one of them. However, despite playing so many seasons with the team and even winning a Stanley Cup with them back in 2022, he’s now no longer on the team. There are many more factors that have confused the NHL world regarding the trade, and this will surely be one of the mysteries until the star forward signs a massive contract extension with the Canes or looks ahead to his ice hockey future with some other team. Only time will tell.