Welcome back in everyone to the world's most trusted weekly salary cap article, and oh boy was last Friday fun or what? I can't remember a deadline day where I was more locked in on my iPhone than this season, along with plenty of texts to friends that started out with, "Can you believe…". Needless to say, I have thoughts that I've sat on for a week. We'll go in two parts, first being the trade that rocked Friday…well, depending on who you root for. We'll get to #63 soon, trust me. There's no time to waste, let's get right into this.  

The Stars acquired Mikko Rantanen from the Hurricanes in exchange for Logan Stankoven, a conditional 2026 1^st round pick (DAL), a conditional 2028 1^st round pick (DAL), a 2026 3^rd round pick (DAL), and a 2027 3^rd round pick (DAL)

One week ago if you were a Stars fan, could you have ever imagined that Mikko Rantanen would be on the top line for your club, and potentially making you the odds-on Cup favorite? I personally did not have that on my BINGO card as someone who if I were ranking my favorite clubs would put Dallas up there (They gave me a ticket to a game when I visited their practice facility once. Yes, I can be bought). I already broke down the financials and fantasy aspects of the trade that involved Rantanen between Colorado and Carolina, and my thoughts on it remain the same as far as what type of player each received in return, but now let's start fresh and go from Carolina to Dallas.

For Carolina, I understand that there's reason to be frustrated if you're a fan but just hear me out for a second because I think there's positives here that are worth mentioning. First, how often does a player like Mikko Rantanen become available, and how often are those players ever moved? Artemi Panarin comes to mind in the worst trade in my lifetime (Stan Bowan, you su-) ah-hem, sorry! Any who, a player at Rantanen's level seldom comes available for trade so I don't mind the Canes going for it on a deal that they thought would improve their club enough to get over the hump. There's no reason to be upset at that. I do see the friction, on Rantanen's out word approach on wanting to leave Raleigh, and that's not 100% on the organization if they did their due diligence to gage his interest prior to the trade. While there are similarities between this affair and Jake Guentzel last season, keep in mind that Jake Guentzel may have stayed, but the negotiations dragged on, and Carolina had to make their offseason signings quickly before losing out on both Guentzel and their free agent class.

I understand giving up on a player that you envisioned on your club for the duration of this season and postseason, with the possibility of the future, is difficult, but Carolina made out alright in their trade to Dallas. I really (like really) think that Logan Stankoven will be an excellent NHL'er sooner rather than later, with Carolina having the luxury of not needing to extend him right away as he has one more season under team control at less than $1M. Look, Necas numbers are going to be inflated some as long as he's with Nathan MacKinnon (because Nathan MacKinnon), but just player-for-player, I don't see why Stankoven can't be more valuable for this Carolina club. Plus, if the Canes can either sign or extend him before his current contract is up, then they may have an excellent player on a very reasonable contract. I want Canes fans to keep in mind as well, that the picks that they received in the deal may end up being moved for a future asset, that isn't off the table. This is a club that I don't know if they have a Cup, but at least come closer if goaltending health and luck swings their way. They are financially incredible stable with good young players on their way and are well coached. Losing Rantanen is difficult, but on a short list of clubs that can move forward from something like this, the Canes are on it. If you're rostering Stankoven in fantasy, his role may be line dependent as it was in Dallas, I don't see that changing much on a club that shifts around their top three lines up often.

For Dallas…originally, hand up, I disliked this trade for them. I thought that bringing in $12M of additional spend next season of Rantanen's sign-and-trade would hinder their opportunities to secure their current assets. I was also hesitant on a group that had scored four goals or more in their last four games, maybe don't tamper with a good thing? Now, those were my thoughts traveling in an Uber from downtown Chicago to the north neighborhood I live in, so I had time to think and dive into their cap situation…which at the same time got the notification that they also signed Wyatt Johnston to an extension for three years $8.4M AAV. Telling you all right now, that's going to be one of the "best" contacts in hockey before that expires. I wrote about Dallas as well in November that they could make a splash, completely forgetting that they have Tyler Seguin's $9.5M LTIR money, Miro Heiskanen's LTIR money, and odds are will either move on, or resign Jamie Benn at a much lower AAV than the $9.5M that he's at right now. In the 20 minutes in traffic that passed I went from not liking how adding additional spend would strap their salary cap, to an "If not now, when?" attitude here with more financial flexibility than I had realized moving forward.

From a fantasy and "real" hockey standpoint, I can see how Rantanen is still going to be an elite player to have in fantasy but something that I wanted to bring up that I haven't seen out there is his line. Okay sure, we know Jason Robertson, and although he got off to a very slow start, has looked better over the past month. Where I'm focused is Roope Hintz. Anyone else watch Four Nations? At times, Hintz and Rantanen were on the ice together and worked well in a small sample, and I don't think that's something that should go overlooked. The one thing that's slowed down the Stars in playoffs to me is…well, slowing down. The club looked burnt, just go back and watch and I know I've mentioned it here before. I really feel that your goal in hockey is to make it to the second week of May, because if you can do that, then anything is possible and if you're one of the more established clubs at that point, then you may just have confetti, a free t-shirt and hat, followed by a parade, in a month. The Stars have positioned themselves well to reach that point and have given themselves enough money to work with now and in the future to continue on any success this offseason.

*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com  

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