The Hurricanes caused shock waves to ripple through the NHL Friday night with their acquisition of Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall. They moved out Martin Necas, Jack Drury and three draft picks in the process and officially opened the door on trade season.
The Hurricanes have been one of the NHLs most dominant regular season teams over the past number of years. Their downfall seems to be in the playoffs, where scoring eventually dries up as they pepper opposing teams with high quantities of low quality shots. I notes in May that, if there was a change to be made to the Canes’ forward group, it was the need to add a high impact forward that could help create offence.
Mikko Rantanen is that forward. He’s been one of the NHL’s top forwards for years and his addition immediately upgrades the Hurricanes’ offence. Teambuilding Tenet #5: Swing Big For Stars is in full effect here. The Canes took a swing for a difference maker. They had to give up some quality assets but they acquired the best player in the deal. Through in the fact that they were able to get the Blackhawks to broker the deal and eat half Rantanen’s cap hit and this looks like a coup.
Getting Taylor Hall in the deal is almost an afterthought but I don’t think it should go unnoticed. Hall has struggled in Chicago, but he’s been asked to be one of the few carrying the team there. He won’t be in that position in Carolina. Pushed down into the middle six, I think it’s very reasonable to think that he could have a notable impact there. In fact, there are some parallels to the trade that sent Hall from the Sabres to the Bruins in 2021. He went from struggling leading actor to strong supporting cast member in that deal. It could very well happen again.
The Hurricanes also had a couple of things that the Avalanche didn’t that opened the door for them to take a big swing. First, they haven’t cleared out their prospect pipeline while they’ve been contending. Even after the trade, they still have a respectable set of draft picks over the next three drafts. Second, they manage their cap very carefully. That’s left them with plenty of cap flexibility as early as next season that leaves opportunity for them to consider extending Rantanen if they decide the price is acceptable. Teambuilding Tenet #7: Flexibility is Important.
The Hurricanes pushed their chips to the middle and loudly declared their Stanley Cup aspirations this season with last night’s deal. They did it following some smart roster building principles and didn’t put the future in jeopardy.
