The Dallas Stars actually swung huge and landed Mikko Rantanen

The biggest deal of the deadline, let's talk about it.

Turns out Jim Nill made his big splash.

It just wasn’t the splash anyone was expecting, myself included.

In the biggest deal of the NHL Trade Deadline, the Dallas Stars landed Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes and signed the Finnish forward to an eight-year extension with annual cap hit of $12 million per season.

It’s a seismic move for Dallas, which bolsters their already-strong Stanley Cup chances this season and adds a 28-year-old long-term scorer that who surpassed 100 points in each of the past two seasons.

In return the Stars are sending Logan Stankoven, two first round picks (2026 and 2027) and two third-round picks (2026 and 2027) to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The move developed in the past 14 or so hours for the Stars, who worked out the framework of the deal with Carolina late last night while the two teams were playing subsequently.

Dallas was only willing to make the move with an extension, and once the framework of a potential trade was agreed to by Nill and Carolina Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky, the Stars were able to work directly with Rantanen’s agent Andy Scott on an extension.

Getting Rantanen to sign for $12 million per season turn into a big win for the Stars, especially after the player reportedly turned down higher offers from both the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina earlier this season.

So in the end, after spending parts of 10 seasons with Colorado, including winning a Stanley Cup in 2022, Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes lasted all of 13 games and six points.

That included playing 20:47 in Thursday’s 3-2 win for the Hurricanes against the Boston Bruins.

I personally watched Rantanen play on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. He was a bit of a passenger in that game, but it didn’t really matter as Carolina dominated play in a 2-1 victory.

There’s been a lot of Rantanen discourse since he was traded the first time, flipped from Colorado to Carolina in a three-team swap that sent Martin Necas and Jack Drury to Denver.