The Athletic Hockey Show - Stars land Rantanen in blockbuster NHL trade deadline move

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Max Bultman, Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoe discuss the huge deadline day trade between the Hurricanes and Stars involving Mikko Rantanen, who negotiated an 8 year, 12 million dollar per year deal with Dallas, to get the trade done. The Hurricanes, who acquired Rantanen earlier this season from Colorado, received Logan Stankoven and two 1st round picks in 2026 and 2027 from the Stars.Host: Max BultmanWith: Sean McIndoe and Sean GentilleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another special trade deadline edition of the Athletic Hockey Show presented by E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. I'm Max Boltman alongside Sean Gentilly and Sean McIntyley. And, guys, we got the big one, the one that we didn't know if we were going to get today, but everyone was kind of buzzing around, Sean Gentilly, Miko Ranton, and then going to the Dallas Stars. He's going to sign an eight-year extension there. Carolina getting back two first-round picks and Logan Stankovan, a whopper here,

a ton to unpack. Where's the first place your mind goes with this one? I think we had like a time delay, like a time release realization of just how dramatically the Dallas stars have won the deadline, the trade, the last month. It took like 15 minutes, I think, once we knew what the package was for me to really lock in on the fact that, yeah, this is this is one-sided, right? Like, there's no way around it. It's one-sided for right now, right? I mean, this is, Logan Stancoven is a guy that a lot of us had way high up on our Calder Trophy lists heading into the season, and he hasn't been at that level. So as far as how good does this make the Dallas Stars right now, it's a huge win.

I don't hate it for the Carolina hurricanes, though, especially if you view this as them being pushed into a corner. And we should say, as we're recording this at like 130, 90 minutes to go to the deadline, do we assume that at least one of those two firsts that they just got is getting flipped for something? Is it Brock Besser or something like that's the name that suddenly jumps out to me? And if suddenly you're sitting there at the end of the day with Brock Besser and Logan Stankovin for a guy that wasn't going to stick around, that might still be enough in an east that suddenly is certainly in a metro that's kind of thinning out a bit. it's just brutal that one of those first round picks is like almost good enough to get them.

It's like just barely good enough to get them Anthony Pavilion. The market's been a while. The first place my head goes here is, and you're right, Sean, it does have to be in the context of where this ends by the end of the day. Is there another score coming in here? One of the reasons I like the Miko Renton and Trade, the original Miko Renton and Trade from Colorado to Carolina is it was Carolina saying, hey, we're going for it this year. hopefully you can resign the guy, but you're trying to win this year. And if he's a rental, he's a rental,

it's Carolina going for it. They've been around it for so long. Yeah, Logan Stankevin's a great return. If you zoom this out to what they got for basically Martin Naches, you're really happy with the Martin Natchezon and direct jury. You're really happy to get Logan Stankovina and two first for that. But I'm looking at this as Carolina, the 2025 team in a wide open Eastern conference.

They may never have a better chance to win the Stanley Cup in this year. And unless they do get that score, which I have to assume they're going to, that's going to be my takeaway from this is when exactly does Carolina plan on taking this to the next level? I get it. Like that's the way I was thinking about it initially too. Like you do the transitive property and you say that, okay,

it's sort of like trading NACIS and injectory in a second rounder and a third rounder or a fourth rounder for Stankovan and first rounders and Taylor Hall. Right? Like that's basically what it boils down to. And that was how I was trying to frame it, you know, initially. But I don't know, man. That feels like that feels like cope to me. Because I think,

I think Miko Ranton is far in a way, the best player that's involved here. And, you know, if you're looking at Dallas and Carolina as similarly situated elite teams, like true cup contenders who also need to kind of, you know,

make hay while they can, I, it's such a, it's a decisive win for Dallas. I get it. There's mitigating, factors to stop it from being a train wreck, but, oh, it is decisive. But again, like, we can't skip over the detail that reportedly Carolina had offered nine

figures is what we heard to Miko Renan. Now, you do the math, that means eight times at least 12.5. Dallas is getting him for eight times 12. Okay. Let's assume that Miko Renan was for whatever reason not going to stay in Carolina. So he's a rental for them, but for Dallas. he's a long-term piece. That does change the equation of what you can give up and what the value.

Like, Miko Renton is a far more valuable player to the Dallas stars than he would have been to the Carolina Hurricanes because they were only getting them for a few months. And, yeah, it's, I think, again, I may be getting ahead of things because I'm already got those two first round picks flipped into something to help right now. And we haven't seen it yet. but I feel like it's okay. I don't I don't hate this entirely for for Carolina. I don't hate it either. I don't view it as like asset mismanagement or anything. Like they swung, they did their best.

They added the big fish, you know, with the hope that it would work out in the medium and long term. And it didn't. Like I don't blame them for the attempt, right? Because this is always what we've wanted from Carolina going back. in this iteration of the franchise three years for it like the entire brindamore era where like go get somebody go all in and they've done it twice now and it hasn't worked out and like i i hope that doesn't i hope that doesn't uh affect their approach maybe moving forward i i'm concerned that it might

given given the way the ownership tends to work there but so i i don't know i'm i'm not i'm not slack in Carolina for this, but it's still, it's an unfortunate outcome. That's, that's more the way I'm viewing it. The strangest thing to me is rant and to Sean's point, taking this deal that is smaller than the one that was reportedly offered in Carolina. I get Dallas as a no tax date, you know, players do seem to really love playing in Dallas. You can't hindsight this whole thing, but if this was enough, I almost wonder why Colorado traded him to begin with. And Colorado, not a no tax date, there's got to be some kind of advantage to being in the place where you're so comfortable.

I'm reading between the lines here, and let me be clear, this is not me having any sort of insight into what happened. But it does feel like with maybe with Miko Randin, there was a little bit of, okay, I'm going to wind up in Colorado. But now we're going to do the dance. We're going to play the game of chicken. And I'm going to give them a high number. And they're telling me 12, but I bet you we can get them to go up and back and forth.

and the assumption being I'm going to lock in at this place that I have no desire to leave. And then suddenly one day you get the phone call saying they've traded you. And we were all shocked when that happened. We all felt like, wow, this is early in the process. We figured maybe at the deadline, Colorado moves them if they can't get a deal. But it happened so quickly. And you just wonder if that just kind of threw him off enough that figuring out, how do I handle this?

Like, you've got to feel like eight times 12, or eight times 12 would have got it done in Colorado. And you're right. No tax state, though. Boy, the big losers in all this, the fans who have got to hear about our two favorite topics now, no tax states and LTIR, guys getting dropped on the LTIR because that's how Dallas has this room in the first

place, because Meryl Heiskenen, because Tyler's again, both LTIR for the rest of the season. So we get to cover both of those topics. that I know everybody loves hearing about and has fascinating opinions about. Also, we can say goodbye to McHale Granland as a long-term Dallas start. Well, he just earned, he just earned a rental status because him and Jamie Ben are the other contract to pay for this, to pay for the rent.

Let's not, let's not, you know, let's not just breeze by that. Jamie Ben, the captain of the Dallas Stars, who has been there his entire career, basically just found out he's not coming back unless he's willing to come back at a huge discount because they just gave his money to somebody else, somebody's younger and brand new who just walked in the door. Jamie Ben's a UFA this summer. That's where the space comes that Dallas can use to make Miko Renton and fit in. But you wonder what kind of impact maybe that has in the room in Dallas and how this all plays there because Jamie Ben's a real popular guy in that market and in that room. And he just basically found out it's not going to happen for a few months, but he just got the footprint on the back, didn't he? Sean McIndo hates this trade for the Dallas stars. Can you believe it?

Can you believe it, folks? Well, but here's the thing. You know, Sean, you got the Friday rankings. I got the Monday ones. guess who's number one with a bullet on the Stanley Cup favorite rankings right now. Whatever else you think of this trade, the Dallas stars, well, do either of you disagree? The Dallas stars are now the clear-cut frontrunner for the Stanley Cup. I think it's them.

Oh, I don't know. Winnipeg just added Luke Shen and Brandon Tanna. Come on. Winnipeg is having a rough day with Brock Nelson and now Miko Renan coming into that division. That's a tough one. You guys were on Tampa. I mean, are we on collision course for Lightning Stars rematch here in the Stanley Cup final? Those are probably the two teams that helped themselves the most this week.

And if you look at their rosters, there might be the most complete team in each of their conferences at this point. You know what? You're probably not wrong. I still want to wait and see, A, what does Carolina do? And B, as stupid as this sounds, are the Panthers still in on something big? I mean, you know, they just never count out the Florida Panthers when it comes to making trades. And meanwhile, we're all sitting around waiting for the Vegas Golden Knights to show up. Isn't this typically where they just come in?

I mean, yeah, we just got Leondry Saddle from Edmonton. Don't ask how. No details. It just happened. It's fun, man. We got an hour and 20 minutes until the deadline alarms go off. And it feels like there's still a lot of pieces ready to go. but Miko Rentonan was the cliched metaphorical Big Domino

and he just dropped. Just another big win for the Wednesday show. What teams did we gas up a couple days ago? That's right. Tampa. They go out and make big splashes, I think. I believe we broke the news that Yanni Gord was going to go to Tampa like six hours before it happened.

NHL visionaries, the Wednesday boys. Dallas gets the biggest fish on the market. Carolina gets an incomplete for now. We may have an update to that as the day progresses. Stay tuned to this feed for future trade, well, hopefully multiple more trade shows before the end of the day. We'll talk to you soon.