MacKinnon Saddened by Rantanen Trade: ‘I Never Thought in a Million Years He Would Leave’

Nathan MacKinnon was open and honest about the sudden Mikko Rantanen trade. The two were teammates for a decade and were arguably the most lethal duo in the NHL over the past seven years. But that’s all come to an end.

Rantanen was sent to Carolina, and MacKinnon was left saddened.

“Really great friend. Nine years, 10 years together, won a Cup, obviously. It’s just sad,” MacKinnon told reporters following Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Boston. “I mean, I don’t know exactly what happened. I called Mikko pretty shortly after. We talked for close to 20 minutes.

“But yeah, it’s just unfortunate. Losing a great friend, great teammate. I’m gonna miss him.”

Rantanen was a pending unrestricted free agent and contract talks between his representation and the Avalanche’s front office were not going well. Kudos to the player for not letting it affect his play this season.

Things seemed to be shifting towards this over the past few weeks. But it doesn’t change the fact that it was still a shock.

MacKinnon compared it to Gabriel Landeskog’s negotiations in his pending UFA 2021 season. He always felt like things would get figured out.

“I’ve been asking him, like, is it, you know, it’s just tough, like, you don’t want to get in someone’s business,” MacKinnon said, referring to Rantanen’s negotiations with the team. “It’s just hard. I remember when Gabe didn’t sign, it went to the last hour, and he was up. So I just assumed it would be kind of the same thing.

“I never thought in a million years he’d leave. So, yeah, it just sucks.”

MacKinnon said the leadership group had to address the team following the trade. Landeskog, who is with the team on the road trip, led the way.

“Me and Cale spoke last night. Landy [too],” MacKinnon said. “A lot of the guys are just shocked. I mean, pretty crazy someone like that getting traded right now. He’s a big, big part of our team, our culture. I mean, he’s been here from the dog days in 16-17, all the way up to now, and helped grow this organization into a Stanley Cup winner and being a contender every season, he’s a big, big reason why, because of him.”

MacKinnon continued: “But, you know, that’s just one part of it. Mostly we spend time together off the ice, so that’s probably the part we’ll miss most. He’s goofy, just a great, great teammate, a great person.”

The Avs were trying to keep Rantanen below MacKinnon’s $12.6 million cap number. For many reasons.

For starters, they didn’t want another forward making more than MacKinnon, who is arguably one of the top two or three best skaters in the NHL. But they also needed to make sure they could later afford to sign Cale Makar to what’s expected to be another league-altering contract extension in about 18 months.

Did the internal cap matter for MacKinnon?

“I don’t care. I mean, I was making [$6.3 million] for a long time. I don’t know if I was top five on the team,” MacKinnon said. “Anyone who really knows me knows I really don’t care about money. It’s the last thing on my mind. And whoever’s up, I mean, if Cale is up, who knows, he’d get 20. So it is what it is.

“You have to talk to Joe and CMac. I want guys to get paid. I think he’s earned it. Mikko has earned a big payday. He scored 50, 100 points every season.”

Saddened but also curious, MacKinnon still isn’t entirely sure how this happened.

“Like I said, I don’t know exactly what happened. I’ll have to talk to Chris and Joe and Mikko, and I’m sure there are lots of sides to every story,” he said. “But I just know I’m going to miss him, and he’s such a great person. So it’s going to be tough.”