Carolina Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said trading for star winger Mikko Rantanen was a risk worth taking, even after Carolina failed to sign him and subsequently flipped him to the Dallas Stars before Friday’s NHL trade deadline.
“Our organization is characterized by an aggressive approach. Being aggressive means taking some risks. It means taking some chances,” Tulsky said. “If the team was already winning (Stanley) Cup after Cup after Cup, maybe that would be a time to be conservative, but we haven’t gotten to where we want to be yet. Ultimately, that means you’re taking some risks.”
Rantanen was traded twice within two months. The Colorado Avalanche traded him to the Hurricanes on Jan. 24 in a blockbuster three-way trade that saw Carolina also acquire Chicago Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall in the deal. Colorado received winger Martin Necas, who was Carolina’s leading scorer this season, as well as Hurricanes center Jack Drury, a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-rounder. The Blackhawks also took on half of Rantanen’s $9.25 million salary cap hit to facilitate the trade.
Rantanen wasn’t his dominant self in Carolina, scoring 6 points in 13 games while adjusting to what he described was a completely unexpected trade out of Denver.
The Hurricanes engaged in contract talks with Rantanen on an extension. Carolina presented Rantanen and his agent with a detailed contract proposal during the 4 Nations Face-Off, with ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reporting that the average annual value of the deal was somewhere between $13-14 million. But it became clear that the pending unrestricted free agent would not commit to Carolina before Friday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline.
“My sense of it was that this just didn’t feel like home for him, as far as I can tell. And that’s OK. He’s making an 8-year commitment,” Tulsky said.
The Hurricanes were open to using Rantanen as a rental, with Tulsky calling it a “perfectly fine outcome.” But he said the trade offers at the deadline were too enticing not to explore — including the one from Dallas that the Hurricanes ultimately accepted.
The Stars traded forward Logan Stankoven, a 2026 first-round pick, a 2026 third-round pick, a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 first-round pick for Rantanen, the NHL’s sixth-leading scorer over the last three seasons (279 points in 223 games). Both first-round picks are top-10 protected. Dallas agreed to the trade after coming to terms with Rantanen on an 8-year contract extension with an annual average value of $12 million.
Tulsky said trading away Rantanen “wasn’t the goal” but that the team is comfortable with how the situation ended up, praising Stankoven’s potential and the draft capital the Canes acquired.
He lamented that Carolina couldn’t use those picks before the trade deadline to bring in help for this season, citing how much time it took for Dallas to finalize its contract with Rantanen and for the teams to close their deal. The Hurricanes didn’t have cap flexibility until the Rantanen trade was closed, and Tulsky said Carolina missed out on some players they were targeting in the interim.
Rantanen’s decision to sign with Dallas marked the second straight season a star acquisition has spurned the Hurricanes. Winger Jake Guentzel was acquired at last season’s deadline, only to leave for the Tampa Bay Lightning as a free agent. Tulsky defended his franchise, saying the situations weren’t similar and that “we’ve got a lot of high-end players that have signed here long term.”
The first-year general manager said he expects to walk his players through the franchise’s “team building” plans soon. Tulsky was emphatic that he has no regrets for having acquired Rantanen from Colorado.
“When you move him out, that’s a loss for the current year. But we felt we were getting enough in this deal that it was the best thing for the organization in the long term,” Tulsky said.
