Jordan Staal didn’t sugarcoat the Mikko Rantanen experience in Carolina. To him, the whole thing felt off from the start, and it never really settled into anything resembling normal.
Speaking recently on Spittin’ Chiclets, the Hurricanes captain described Rantanen’s brief stop with the team in 2024-25 as one of the strangest stretches he’s seen in the NHL.
“Yeah, that was a wild time. It was so weird, and I get it.
I felt bad for Rants, too. He wasn’t really expecting to get traded.
He was hoping to sign in Colorado, whatever it was. So we have like a star player sitting beside me on my right, and he’s not sure what’s going on.
He’s trying to play his best, he’s struggling out there, he’s frustrated, and like Roddy’s kind of tiptoeing around because we want to sign him. But like, he’s not really doing kind of what we’d like him to do, but also, like, he’s so talented and you’re like, I get it, and he can make plays, and you’re like, okay, we’ll figure it out, but you also need to know if he was gonna be here.
It was the weirdest time. Even for me, it was like, I don’t know what to say to him for the most part.
It’s tough. It was weird.”
The awkwardness, according to the source material, went deeper than just fit on the ice. Rantanen had been trying to work out a better deal with the Avalanche when Colorado traded him to Carolina, and he later said he never wanted to leave. He also said he would have come back if the offer had been different, but he didn’t get that chance.
That uncertainty seemed to hang over everything. Staal said Rantanen was trying to play through it, but the results weren’t there.
He wasn’t producing, and he wasn’t playing the kind of hockey the Hurricanes wanted. The fit simply wasn’t right.
The deadline eventually passed, and that was the clean break Carolina needed. Staal said the team wanted the whole situation finished so they could move on from the constant possibility of another move. Once Rantanen was dealt, the Hurricanes won 10 games in a row.
The trade sent Rantanen to the Dallas Stars, where he signed a long-term extension. Carolina came away with Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks, and two third-round pick in the deal. Stankhoven was instrumental in this past season’s win.
The Hurricanes didn’t win the Stanley Cup that season. They won it the next year.
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