On Friday night, the Carolina Hurricanes made a blockbuster deal with the Colorado Avalanche, acquiring Mikko Rantanen in exchange for Martin Necas and Jack Drury.

Carolina Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky is explaining his reasons for pushing for Mikko Rantanen, in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche. Carolina engaged in a trade with the Avalanche, as well as Chicago on Friday. The end result is that Rantanen is now a Hurricane.

The Colorado Avalanche have traded Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes, according to multiple reports. Once official, this will be one of the most stunning transactions in franchise history. Martin Necas and Jack Drury are coming to Colorado as part of the deal,

After the blockbuster trade, the Hurricanes are the favorites to come out of the East with a 12.7 percent chance of winning the Cup.

The trade is a stunning midseason swap of point-per-game players in their primes, an anomaly in the NHL trade market in the salary-cap era.

The Colorado Avalanche have traded 28-year-old star forward Mikko Rantanen. The team confirmed the move late Friday night.

The first major domino has fallen more than a month before the March 7 trade deadline, with Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall going to the Hurricanes and Martin Necas heading to the Avalanche in a three-team blockbuster,

Colorado Avalanche right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) celebrates with the bench after scoring against Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) during the second period of Game 3 of an NHL Stanley Cup second-round playoff series Saturday, May 11, 2024, at Ball Arena in Denver. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

When the Avalanche announced on Friday that they’d traded Mikko Rantanen, ESPN described it as a “blockbuster.” Those who rank such things place it No. 6 on the list of the biggest trades in Denver sports history.

The Mikko Rantanen trade undoubtedly ranks among the biggest in the salary cap era, but maybe recency bias plays a role in that perception. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some other blockbuster contenders.

The Chicago Blackhawks ended up trading Taylor Hall away. However, there is a source that believes that they tried to keep him.