Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on the 32 Thoughts Podcast: 882 Down. 13 to Go. episode, on Mikko Rantanen’s situation with the Carolina Hurricanes.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Bukauskas: “Last pod Elliotte, we talked about Mikko Rantanen. Saw him and the Hurricanes in Toronto. It was ugly early. They almost improbably made it a game late in the third period. But on Saturday Headlines say you had the news that Rantanen’s representatives met with the Hurricanes in person over the Four Nations break, and that the Hurricanes made an offer into the nine digits.
So assuming that would be a max eight-year term, we’re talking at least 12 and a half million per season. Where do things stand there as we record this late on Sunday night?”
Friedman: “I don’t think anything has changed since Saturday night as far as I know. The one thing that a couple people said that I should have said on Friday, that I did not, was that even if he’s not signed by March 7th, the deadline, the Hurricanes will have the option of keeping him and either A) believing they’ll get him to sign, or B), just saying, ‘you know what, we’re going to go for the Stanley Cup.’
So that is something else. But, you know, I stick to it. It is true. There are teams out there who are saying, we’re not so sure we should rush into anything else until we know for certain what’s happening with this player.
And so I don’t want to say that Rantanen is holding up the trade deadline, because I don’t believe that’s true, but I do think that there are teams who are looking at it and saying, maybe we don’t make our biggest move until we know for sure what his situation is.
Now the $100 million, it makes sense, because if you look at seven times 14, which you would think he’d be, the most he could get as an unrestricted free agent is 98 (million). So it makes a lot of sense for the Hurricanes to make sure they’re above that.
I’ll tell you a couple things without knowing exactly what the offer is. I’ll tell you a couple things. I don’t believe it’s eight times 14, and I don’t believe it’s in that area. I also don’t believe it is eight times 12.5. I think it’s a little bit higher. So that’s where I think we are.
And you know, as I said, you know, the one thing that happened with (Jake) Guentzel last year was the it took the Hurricanes too long to get where Guentzel wanted to go.
So, this particular case, they’ve respected that Rantanen is in an emotional whirlwind, and still is. But they’ve put their stake in the ground, a big one, and said we’re serious. And we want you to know we’re serious right off the bat, and he knows. I think this is now purely a matter of waiting for Rantanen to make his decision one way or the other.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s new and we’re just getting started. Rumor roundups and hot topics from around the league.