Insider Trading: Decision time looming for Hurricanes on Rantanen
Published
TSN's Hockey Insiders have the latest on Carolina and Mikko Rantanen, the Bruins and Brad Marchand, and Toronto's deadline day focus.
Decision time looming for Hurricanes on Rantanen
JAMES DUTHIE: Standing by and maybe we’ll be here all night long, who knows? There’s Chris Johnston, there’s Pierre LeBrun, there is Darren Dreger.
Yes, it is not weeks or days anymore. It is hours to the deadline and sometime in those few hours, the Carolina Hurricanes are going to have to make a decision on what they are going to do with Mikko Rantanen.
Are they leaning, Pierre, one way or the other?
PIERRE LeBRUN: You know, it’s hard to say if they’re leaning. Here’s what we believe is the understanding, or happening over the last 24 hours.
They have gone to the teams that they know have interest in Mikko Rantanen. They’ve asked those teams to get serious in what they’d be willing to give up, and flesh out what those offers would look like.
And at the end of the day, what I expect Carolina to do is look at all of those offers and decide if that’s better than just renting out Rantanen for a Cup run with the Hurricanes, and whether they lose him July 1 for nothing, so be it.
They have not made that determination whether they’re for sure trading him or for sure keeping him, except that as many teams told me today, both options remain on the table here on this day.
Teams that we believe have interest: the Dallas Stars, the Florida Panthers, Vegas and L.A. showed interest, among other teams, of course, there’s lots of interest.
But this is decision time for Carolina and I don’t know if they can let this go late into Friday. I think they have to make this decision sooner than later.
DARREN DREGER: Well, you’re right. But this is music to the ears of James Duthie because there is a chance that the crown jewel, which is Mikko Rantanen, can drift into Friday, right?
I’m getting the sense in talking to the sellers, who have forwards that are in play, that that’s what’s holding it up, right?
Now, that could change automatically. Maybe a team says “Alright, we’re not waiting on Mikko Rantanen to see what the haul is. We’re going to jump back in and we’re going to make that deal with the Philadelphia Flyers for Scott Laughton, or another forward available.''
But the sense I’m getting is that a lot of team are waiting to see what Carolina does, and if they trade Rantanen, what that deal looks like.
DUTHIE: The smart decision for Carolina, sleep on it, make a decision in the morning around somewhere between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., or something along those lines.
Bruins looking for potential Marchand deal before deadline?
Another massive name that surfaced (on Thursday), and maybe that’s not the right phraseology because we’ve been talking about Brad Marchand. But it felt quiet lately, like that he was going to remain a Bruin past the deadline.
Is there now a real possibility he gets dealt?
CHRIS JOHNSTON: Absolutely. And you’re right, especially as he suffered an injury last weekend so he’s out of the Bruins lineup, and the feeling had been all along. He’s been quite clear when he’s spoken to reporters, that he wants to remain in Boston. The Bruins have wanted to keep him.
But what I can tell you is that at this point in time, there’s no confirmation he’s going to be traded, but the feeling league-wide is that he very much is likely to be moved by the Bruins, at some point, to the west.
And so we’ll see where this goes because there has been some conversations on a new contract as recently as the last couple days. There’s always a pivot point when you get this close, James, you don’t want to box yourself totally in.
But it does feel like it’s moving towards a Marchand deal, which would be a surprise given that he is a life-long Bruin, and has wanted to stay there.
DUTHIE: Sorry, did you say to the West?
JOHNSTON: Well, to the west of us.
DUTHIE: Just clarifying, because you know Toronto fans are imagining what would it be like to have Rantanen, but what would it be like to have Marchand in Blue and White? And the answer is that it would be weird to see him in that uniform, though he’d be very helpful.
Maple Leafs GM Treliving looking for upgrades at centre, defence
But for Toronto, does the focus remain elsewhere?
DREGER: It’s on centre and defence. There’s been lots of speculation on why Brad Treliving might drift away from that, and we know the history of Brad Treliving, right? As an NHL general manager, this man is involved in absolutely everything.
So undoubtedly, he’s made the calls on the wingers in play and he’s focused on bringing in a defenceman, conversations with Philadelphia on Rasmus Ristolainen.
But when you look up the middle of the ice, hey, the door still isn't closed. I know Leafs fans are tired of me talking about Brayden Schenn and the St. Louis Blues. We're going to continue to talk about Brayden Schenn until Doug Armstrong says stop talking about Brayden Schenn.
DUTHIE: You guys make fun of me almost every year, how desperate I am at the end because usually on nights like this it feels like everything’s done. Everybody’s been traded in the days before and there’s only a handful of names left.
It just feels like there’s a lot still potentially out there for 2025 at the night before the deadline. We’ll see what happens in these few hours left.