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 powerful Rantanen has scored 30 goals or more in five consecutive seasons, with a career-best 55 in the 2022-23 season.
