Rantanen Talks With Avalanche “Pretty Ugly”; One Cup Contender Revealed to be Calling

We shared the reports last month that the Colorado Avalanche were going to have a "rough road" to signing superstar forward Mikko Rantanen to an extension this season. The impending unrestricted free agent is said to be looking for something in the range of a $14 million AAV, while the team reportedly has an "internal cap" — that being their primary superstar Nathan MacKinnon's $12.6 million AAV.

Now, per insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, speaking on the Real Kyper & Bourne show on Monday, the situation between the Avalanche and Rantanen is getting "pretty ugly."

I can give you a peek inside the Rantanen situation in Colorado, which has been pretty ugly. I think those two sides, I don't wanna say they're at odds, but... the Avs have drawn a really clear line in the sand, saying 'we've got an internal cap and this number slightly south of where MacKinnon is, is as far as we're willing to go'.

And Rantanen is sitting there going, 'Well, Leon Draisaitl, he just got to $14M for next season. We have the same agent, I know what the market looks like, why can't I get close to $14M?'

Although Colorado certainly can't afford to take any chance that Rantanen could leave for nothing in free agency, at the same time, Seravalli is really struggling with where this might go, because he admits that "I have a hard time believing that Chris McFarland or Joe Sakic are going to walk into that Avalanche locker room this season and tell Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, 'Hey, we just traded Mikko Rantanen.'

"There's been teams calling left and right to Colorado to try and get on the list", said Seravalli, who then revealed that the Carolina Hurricanes are definitely one of those calling. "They're a team that's ultra-aggressive."

Rantanen is off to what could be the best season of his already stellar career, with 20 goals and 53 points in 37 games.

But somehow, the two sides are still nowhere close to an extension agreement.

"It has not been pretty to this point in time."