The first major domino falls more than a month before the March 7 trade deadline, with Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall going to the Hurricanes and Martin Necas going to the Avalanche in a three-team blockbuster, according to multiple reports. It happened.
According to ESPN, Jack Drury will also be traded from the Hurricanes to the Avalanche, while the Blackhawks (tied for the fewest points in the NHL but involved in signing two prospects) will acquire a third-round pick from Carolina. He will retain 50 percent. Rantanen's salary.
ESPN reported that the Avalanche will acquire a second-round pick in 2025 and a fourth-round pick in 2026 from the Hurricanes.
Rantanen, 28, has amassed 25 goals and 64 points through 49 games this season, and is on pace to score over 40 goals for the third consecutive season.
He helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup at the end of the 2021-22 season, held onto the Western Conference's first wild-card spot this year, and entered Friday's game offsetting Nathan MacKinnon's league-leading 75 points.
And the Hurricanes, the second-place team in the Metropolitan Division, will be joined by Hall, a former No. 1 pick in 2010 who won the Hart Trophy in 2017-18 and flashed his potential with the Blackhawks this year. It turns out. year.
Carolina will be Hall's seventh different team in his career, but his productivity has declined since the campaign that won him the Harts.
Despite parting ways with Rantanen, the Avalanche acquired another star forward in Necas. He has contributed 100 points in the past two seasons and already has 16 goals and 55 points this season.
Rantanen and Hall will become unrestricted free agents after the season, while Necas has one year left on his contract, which averages $6.5 million per year, before he also becomes an unrestricted free agent.
