The Dallas Stars made one of the outstanding moves at last season's NHL trade deadline when they acquired high-scoring winger Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes. Rantanen carried the Stars on his back in their first-round playoff victory last year over the Colorado Avalanche, and he has become something of a legendary performer as a result.
Rantanen started the 2024-25 season with the Avalanche but they traded him to the Hurricanes when they did not think they could sign him to a new contract. He ended up on the Stars when Rantanen told the Hurricanes that he was not interested in playing long-term in Carolina.
The Stars sent a message to their fans Thursday night that they are not about to trade Rantanen to any of their opponents. They issued that somewhat cheeky statement on X shortly after the Dallas Cowboys traded star linebacker Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers largely as a result of a contract dispute.
That trade came months after the Dallas Mavericks traded NBA superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Both the Parsons and the Doncic trades have been widely criticized by supporters of the two Dallas franchises because both teams appear to be significantly weaker as a result of those moves.
Rantanen is a big-time scorer for the Stars
Rantanen, known as “The Moose,” was a spectacular scorer for the Avs throughout his career in Colorado. He showed his new employers that he is capable of taking over a game or a playoff series.
He scored five goals in the last three games of the seven-game triumph over the Avalanche, rescuing the Stars from the jaws of defeat with that performance. The crowning achievement was a three-goal hat trick and an assist in the third period of Game 7, a 4-2 Dallas victory.
Rantanen added another hat trick in the Stars' Game 1 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets in the second-round series. The Stars would go on to beat the Jets, but their season ended in the Western Conference Finals when they lost to the Edmonton Oilers.
Stars have won just one Stanley Cup in team history
They have won just one Stanley Cup in team history, and that came in 1999 when Brett Hull scored the winning goal against Dominik Hasek and the Buffalo Sabres. The Stars have been a playoff team in 15 seasons since then and 6 of the last 7 years, but they have failed to win the Cup since then.
The team has seen multiple painful finishes, but it is just that kind of suffering that can spur the team on to another title. The famous 1994 Stanley Cup champion Rangers had one of their most disappointing finishes the season before, and that suffering led to the championship effort.
The same could happen for the Stars in the 2025-26 season.
