Rantanen Speaks Out About Avalanche: 'I Told Them I'd Be Flexible'
Mikko Rantanen returned to Denver on Saturday for the first time since the first trade of his whirlwind season, when the Colorado Avalanche shocked the hockey world—and Rantanen himself—trading him amid contract negotiations to the Carolina Hurricanes. But Rantanen spoke out today, saying he told the Avs in a face-to-face meeting that he'd be 'flexible' on his extension ask.
An emotional Mikko Rantanen answered a lot of questions and cleared up a lot of what happened over the past seven weeks.
— Aarif Deen (@runwriteAarif) March 15, 2025
He reiterated several times that he was flexible and didn't want to leave. pic.twitter.com/eMC9b0iuo7
Negotiations were going on with Colorado, and six weeks before the deadline I felt that I needed to go talk to the front office, face-to-face, which I did. I told them I'll be flexible and I want to play here for a long time. Then a couple of days later, they traded me. It was obviously very emotional...
A couple of days before, they told me they wanted to do a trade-and-sign (with another team), but I told them I'm only focused on Colorado, I want to stay in Colorado. But they still did the trade.
He said that his first few days in Carolina he was "shocked," but insisted he went with an open mind, and never told them, as had been reported, that he only had a short list of other teams he would to go. He said that wasn't true.
"I tried my best there, I tried to adapt, and I was thinking about staying there for sure, and they were trying to convince me and I listened to everything they had to say.
"The biggest thing was, I wanted to help Carolina out by doing a sign and trade instead of being a rental or possibly a free agent in the summer."
Watch Rantanen's full media conference in Colorado, in full, here:
