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Greg Wyshynski
The Carolina Hurricanes stunned the NHL on Friday night by acquiring Colorado Avalanche star right winger Mikko Rantanen in a blockbuster three-way trade, the teams announced.
The Hurricanes acquired Rantanen and Chicago Blackhawks left winger Taylor Hall in the deal. Colorado received winger Martin Necas, Carolina’s leading scorer this season, and Hurricanes center Jack Drury, as well as a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-rounder from Carolina.
Chicago reacquired its own 2025 third-round pick that it previously had traded to Carolina. The Blackhawks also are retaining half of Rantanen’s $9.25 million salary cap hit to facilitate the trade.
Rantanen is sixth in the NHL this season with 64 points in 49 games, including 25 goals. Since the 2021-22 season, he is fifth among NHL players with 365 points in 286 games. He’s also fifth in goals scored (160) in that span. He has been an integral part of a Colorado team that has been an annual Stanley Cup contender, winning the championship in 2021-22.
But the 28-year-old is an unrestricted free agent this summer and his contract demands created a significant impasse with the Avalanche, with whom he has played for 10 seasons.
Rantanen was seeking a contract in the neighborhood of the eight-year extension Leon Draisaitl signed with the Edmonton Oilers in September. That deal carries an average annual value of $14 million.
Both Rantanen and Draisaitl are represented by agent Andy Scott.
Contract talks between Rantanen and the Avalanche had stalled, with a significant gap between the two sides. Colorado hoped to get Rantanen in under star center Nathan MacKinnon‘s $12.6 million AAV, which was an eight-year contract he signed in September 2022.
Hall, 33, will play for the seventh NHL franchise in a 15-year career that included a Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 2017-18 with the New Jersey Devils. He was traded to the Blackhawks in 2023 by the Boston Bruins but sat out all but 10 games of the 2023-24 season after right knee surgery. He had 28 points in 56 games with Chicago over two seasons. Hall was a healthy scratch earlier this season under former coach Luke Richardson.
Both wingers address an offensive need for the Hurricanes, who have been trying to break through and win the Stanley Cup for several seasons under coach Rod Brind’Amour only to have their goal-scoring stall in the playoffs. Since 2020-21, the Hurricanes have averaged 3.28 goals in the regular season but 2.98 in the postseason. Carolina has made the conference finals twice since 2018 under Brind’amour.
This trade is also a signature moment for Eric Tulsky, who took over as general manager of the Hurricanes in 2024.
“Mikko is one of the premier power forwards in our sport,” he said in a statement. “It’s no secret that we’ve wanted to add elite skill to our lineup, and this is a player who should fit our system and locker room well. And Taylor gives us another high-skill option to bolster our attack.”
After the deal was completed, it saw the Hurricanes go from a +375 co-favorite to win the Eastern Conference to a +325 favorite to win it, per ESPN BET.
Carolina signed Necas to a two-year, $13 million contract last July, avoiding salary arbitration with the 25-year-old forward. He responded with a scoring surge to start the season, with 44 points in his first 30 games. But his pace dropped considerably after that, with 11 points in his next 19 games, including only two goals.
Drury, 24, is in his fourth NHL season. He has 46 points in 153 games. Drury has played 39 games this season with three goals and six assists, skating 12:53 per game. He makes $1.725 million against the salary cap before becoming a restricted free agent in 2027.
The trade gives the Avalanche more draft pick capital and cap space to work with, as teams around the league anticipate the Western Conference contender isn’t done making deals ahead of the March 7 trade deadline.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan contributed to this report.