NHL Rumors: Mikko Rantanen’s Four-Team Preferred List

Was there a four-team preferred list for Mikko Rantanen?

Nick Alberga: David Pagnotta on Mikko Rantanen’s preferred four-team list, and some teams who were interested, and the Carolina Hurricanes preferring the Dallas Stars offer over the Toronto Maple Leafs offer.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

“I’m gonna try and clear up some of the cloudiness. So there was a four-team preferred list. There were four teams that, yeah, these are our top four teams that we’d like to go to. And my understanding is obviously, Dallas, Florida, Toronto, and Edmonton.

Those were the four preferred team lists, and I can confirm with 1,000,000% certainty that he was willing to sign in Toronto, and he was willing to sign in Edmonton.

And I know there’s been a lot of crazy misinformation that’s, I don’t even want to say misinformation, because nobody’s really gotten the whole story, and it’s bits and pieces. Like I was told over the weekend, that, I mean, there was some murkiness. Was Toronto? Weren’t they? Would he have waited till the summer? So I got clarity finally, and yesterday I got clarity on Edmonton.

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But there were other teams that were in the mix, and there were other teams he would have considered, like Vegas, for example. So I think the four-team list, more so than anything, was these are my top four preferred destinations. Figure that out, and then if somebody else comes in the mix, like a Vegas, then we’ll consider it.

LA entered the mix. They put a respectable offer, was my understanding, involving a current roster player, but he wasn’t willing to sign there. So moot point.

Edmonton, he would have entered those, those discussions because they were on his list, but they had no assets to trade. So the trade discussions, they never really evolved, not to the extent of Toronto, and certainly not of Dallas.

After the Marner situation was, was clear, Carolina wanted Matthew Knies in a package, and every sense I got was Toronto didn’t want to do that. So they shifted to the two prospects, the two first, and I believe there was something else in there. But they liked Dallas’s offer. They wanted a proven guy at the NHL level in Logan Stankoven, and they went with that one.”

Mikko Rantanen said he didn’t have a list of teams when he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes

NHL.com: Mikko Rantanen said he didn’t have a list of teams he’d play for when he was dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes

“I saw some things were said that I had a list of teams ready when I went , but that’s false,” Rantanen said Wednesday. “Obviously, it was a big shock to leave Colorado, but I went with an open mind and tried my best on the ice. When I put the jersey on there, I tried my best and just decided just a little bit before the Deadline that Carolina would probably get a better return for me if I would do a sign and trade; that it would be better for their team rather than me being a rental and going somewhere to play. So that was the decision.

“I want to make it clear that I was open-minded in Carolina and really thought about staying there.”

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