At 8:10pm on January 24th, 2025, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman tweeted that the Carolina Hurricanes were trading with Chicago for Taylor Hall. Hall, a former Hart trophy winner and 90 point scorer, was going to be a solid addition to this offence’s middle six at a probably low price. But just seven minutes later, it became clear that this trade was going to be much bigger than Hall.

Mikko Rantanen is a top five winger in the NHL. He has scored 100 points in back to back seasons and is on pace to do it a third time. And all of a sudden, he was a Carolina Hurricane.

This move came out of absolutely nowhere. The Canes had been rumored to be in on Canucks forwards JT Miller and Elias Pettersson, and general manager Eric Tulsky had made it very clear that he intended to improve the team in any way possible, but Rantanen came out of left field. There had been some mumblings that the Avalanche were having difficulties coming to a contract agreement with him, but the possibility of a trade wasn’t in the mind of a single insider until two hours before it happened.

Rantanen is an elite player, and the Canes gave up surprisingly little to get him. Necas has 80-100 point potential, and will be dearly missed as a Cane. Still, he is incredibly inconsistent and had been rumored to want out anyways. Jack Drury, though a workhorse, was pacing for less than twenty points on the year. Outside of Drury and Necas, the deal involved only picks, none of which were first rounders.

If Rantanen re-signs long term as a Cane, this trade is a massive win. We all saw what Aho was able to do with an elite winger last season (Jake Guentzel), and Rantanen is on a whole different level. If the Canes win a cup this year, this trade is a massive win (duh, we win a cup). If neither of those things happens, it’s iffier. Last offseason, the Canes were offered top five picks and elite young players for Necas, and his value has only gone up since then. To have him essentially turn into nothing after a season would be a huge wasted opportunity.

Yet for Tulsky, one of the smartest minds in the NHL, to make this deal, he clearly sees heavy potential for Rantanen to want to stay. And if Rantanen wants to stay, he will stay; Carolina has the best cap situation in the league going into next season.

Still, a deal was not in place when the trade was made, and whether or not Rantanen wants to make Raleigh his long-term home (and if the Canes want to pay him the $14m he is rumored to be asking for) ultimately depends on how the next five months go.

We got our first look at Rantanen and Hall as Canes last night against the Islanders. The game, although ending in a 3-2 overtime loss, showed positive signs for both players. Beginning with Hall; he started the game on the fourth line, and ended it on the second.

The second line looked significantly better with Hall on it too. Before he and Eric Robinson were switched, the line also including Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Andrei Svechnikov managed just 47% of chances and 52% of expected goals. After the swap, those numbers moved to 57% and 69%.

Hall himself had just two chances, both low-danger, but he was one of Carolina’s best players all night. He was making beautiful passes cross-ice and up-ice, was consistently one of the fastest skaters in the rink, and was playing a physical game (he ended with three hits). Hall, although a player far from his peak, is one I could absolutely see rejuvenating his career on a better team. If this game was any indication, he will.

As for the big get, Mikko Rantanen, both the eye-test and advanced stats show that his line with Sebastian Aho and Jackson Blake was phenomenal. Blake specifically had a fantastic game, leading the Canes with .91 expected goals and a takeaway. Although this didn’t lead to any points, I would still stay this game was the best Jackson Blake has looked in his short NHL career.

Rantanen was no small part of why Blake was able to play the way he did. He was pretty much a constant scoring threat (the Canes’ second goal was an attempted pass to him in the slot that bounced off Tony DeAngelo and in) and his accuracy on the backhanded and no-look pass was something to behold.

Although the Canes lost the game and neither Rantanen nor Hall had a point, both players look like fantastic additions which I hope can lead us to cups this year and beyond.