Avalanche & Mikko Rantanen "Don’t Appear to be Close" in Extension Talks

The Colorado Avalanche have had a rough start to the season, going 1-4-0 going into Sunday's action while being outscored by the largest margin in the league. But don't blame Mikko Rantanen for any of that. The star forward has held up his end of the bargain, with 4 goals and 10 points in the first 5 games.

The regular 100-point man is now playing for a new contract, as he's in the final year of his 6-year, $9.25 million AAV deal. But according to Nick Kypreos in the Toronto Star, no extension agreement is imminent.

Mikko Rantanen and the Avalanche don’t appear to be close to an extension. The feeling out there is the Avs are reluctant to get his average salary anywhere near Nathan MacKinnon’s $12.6 million (U.S.) at this point in time. They are also hoping to have a clearer picture on captain Gabriel Landeskog’s health and future before deciding how high they need to go to retain Rantanen.

Interestingly, during the summer, Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now reported that getting an extension done was "a priority" for the Avalanche, while Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman said a couple of months ago that there was "some optimism" that a deal could get done, and that rival teams were telling him that they didn't think that it was "going to be a hard one to get done."

And yet here we are.

As for Landeskog, the Avs captain has missed the last two entire seasons due to a knee injury, and they're still hoping that he'll be able to return not too far into the current campaign. If the nine-time 20-goal scorer isn't able to make it back healthy, that could change the trajectory of the price of a Rantanen extension.

Landeskog still has five years left at a $7 million cap hit.