Welcome to another piece of NHL Rumours, post-trade deadline edition. The NHL trade deadline has passed and some crazy deals have come through. Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers is just one of many groundbreaking moves. However, the Toronto Maple Leafs nearly made the biggest trade of all. Toronto made a massive offer to the Carolina Hurricanes for superstar Mikko Rantanen, that ended up being rejected by the Canes.
Hurricanes Reject Leafs’ Offer For Rantanen
General manager Brad Treliving and the Maple Leafs have completed their business at the deadline. They made a couple of notable trades, but the one that didn’t go through might be the craziest trade offer of the day. On the Real Kyper and Bourne show, hosted by Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, he revealed details about an offer that was on the table between Toronto and Carolina. The centrepiece of it all was right winger Rantanen, who was in a position to become a Maple Leaf.
Treliving offered a haul of prospects and draft picks to attract Canes general manager Eric Tulsky. In the words of Kypreos, Toronto put Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten and two first-round picks on the table. Also, Kypreos added that Treliving was ready to offer Rantanen an eight-year deal worth $13.5 million per season. Instead of taking this offer, the Hurricanes decided to make a deal with the Dallas Stars. Carolina acquired Logan Stankoven, two conditional first-round picks, as well as a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick.
Once the dust settled and all the assets were approved by the league, Rantanen signed an extension with Dallas as part of the trade. His new contract comes out to be an eight-year deal at $12 million per season. Rantanen’s new contract will kick in next season and will expire when he’s 36 years old.
Toronto’s Alternative Route
While the Maple Leafs couldn’t capture Rantanen, they’ll be pleased with their business. Treliving and company acquired exactly what they needed and stuck with the plan. They went out and got a middle-six centre in Scott Laughton and top-four defenceman Brandon Carlo. It’s been known that those positions were the main focus heading into the deadline. In the end, Toronto had to pay an expensive price for players who were high in demand, especially Laughton. Treliving even admitted himself that it was a seller’s market.
The Maple Leafs missed out on Brock Nelson who was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche, who was also expensive. The trade market for centres was running low and it seemed every team needed one. Nonetheless, Toronto paid a first-round pick for each of those additions, as well as Minten to the Boston Bruins and Nikita Grebenkin to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Laughton has played 60 games for Philadelphia this season. He’s scored 11 goals and recorded 16 assists for 27 points in the campaign. Furthermore, he is the only player to achieve a four-goal game this season in a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 12. As for Carlo, he’s a really solid defensive defenceman with a long reach at 6-foot-5. Throughout his nine-year NHL career, he’s never ended a season with a negative plus-minus rating. Furthermore, he set a career-high two seasons ago, reaching a plus-44, the third-best in the NHL that year.
Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
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