Insider Projects 6 Teams Who Could Pay Big For A Rantanen Rental

The buzz is making its way around the league: The Carolina Hurricanes, if they don't think they can get their prized recent acquisition, pending UFA Mikko Rantanen signed to an extension, could flip him at the trade deadline.

The question then becomes: Which contenders could afford, cap-wise, to bring in a superstar like that? As outlined by insider Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast on Friday, pretty much everyone, even teams that don't think they could sign him long-term. They'd be happy to do it as a rental.

Here's why:

The Chicago Blackhawks, as part of the Hurricanes' trade with the Colorado Avalanche, retained 50% of Rantanen's full cap hit for the rest of this year, which leaves the Canes holding a $4.625M cap hit. But Carolina can retain on that in another trade, and if they do so at 50%, Rantanen's cap hit becomes an eminently affordable $2.3M.

As Friedman notes, he can see pretty much every major contender being able to swing that.

He's not going to be a typical rental, because if Carolina retains, who's not doing what they need to do to get that guy at $2.3 million?... All these (contending) teams are gonna be sitting there saying, 'If we don't do it then who else around us is going to do it?'...
You've gotta think teams like Vegas, Dallas, Winnipeg, Florida, Tampa, Toronto. I wonder what (Carolina) could get for him with that kind of competition?

It could lead to a big bidding war, and the Canes could actually reclaim some nice assets to replace the ones they gave up (i.e. in particular, Martin Necas plus two draft picks). All for a "rental."

Rantanen has proven himself to be a playoff scoring beast over the years, with 34 goals and 101 points in 81 games. What Stanley Cup contender wouldn't pay up for that kind of production from a "rental" to put them over the top?