Give Moose his juice.
Let’s say, eight years at $101 million. Everybody gets what they want. Mikko Rantanen, the good solider and Nathan MacKinnon’s literal right-hand man, becomes a $100-million player. The Avs get him in on a deal with an average annual value of $12.6 — the same number as MacKinnon’s $12.6 million per season.
But the depth!
But what? Did you watch the Avalanche’s wild, wide-open 6-3 win over Dallas on Saturday during a rare matinee at Ball Arena? The Avs’ hottest line right now is its second one, with the trio of Jonathan Drouin, Casey Mittelstadt and Artturi Lehkonen accounting for four goals and 10 points against the Stars.
“Yeah, we’re on the same page,” offered Drouin, who finished with three points on the day and netted his 100th career NHL goal to give the hosts a 4-1 lead.
“We’re kind of seeing the game at the same speed, same time, (and our) positioning was right. We’re getting shots, we’re getting traffic, and the puck was kind of finding us at the right moments. And (we) kind of buried our chances.”
Drouin added to the party with a frozen rope from in between the face-off circle, beating Dallas net-minder Casey DeSmith over the goalie’s left shoulder with 90 seconds left in the second frame.
“But yeah, we’re still searching for that mix, right?” coach Jared Bednar noted. “And it’s difficult because it’s always changing, because a lot of those guys in the top six haven’t been healthy at the same time. You’ve got (the Ross) Colton injury, (the) Lehkonen injury, both with extended time missed. Drouin twice. Val (Nichushkin) twice now. So it’s ever-changing, but we’ve got to find a way to get that chemistry.”
The best way? Don’t let key pieces walk. Don’t let starters walk. The Nuggets haven’t been the same without Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the way they haven’t been the same since Indiana opened the vaults for Bruce Brown.
Rantanen, who had a point Saturday, assisting on the Avs’ first power-play goal in 18 tries, can become an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported a few days ago that talks between the Avs and Mikko’s reps are stuck at a stalemate. Seravalli said that Colorado would like to keep Rantanen’s AAV under MacKinnon’s $12.6 million. The Moose wants Leon Draisaitl money, $14 million per year, and ne’er the twain.
But the cap!
But what? A few hours before Avs-Stars, news broke that the NHL was terminating the withholding of escrow from player paychecks.
Without getting into the weeds, it’s a sign that the salary cap for next season is about to creep up. In fact, published estimates peg the cap rising for 2025-26 by at least $3 million more than initially thought.
Per PuckPedia.com, the Avs are projected to have $8.08 million to play with against an $88 million cap number. If the league’s rosy economic indicators are on the upswing, that could move that cushion to at least $11.08 million.
Rantanen’s got a $9.25 million cap hit this season. It wouldn’t be hard to get to the $12 million threshold or to get creative to push that AAV beyond that. Rantanen and Cale Makar, who’s got a $9 million-per-year cap hit through the 2026-27 campaign, don’t have to be an either/or proposition if the former’s payments get deferred.
With Mikko camped out to his right midway through the second stanza, Makar beat DeSmith glove-side with a wrister from the blue line for his 100th career goal, slaying the Avs’ power-play dragon and becoming the fastest active defenseman in the NHL to hit the century mark as a pro.
“Yeah, (Makar has) played half the games as me,” Drouin cracked after the game. “But yeah. It’s always cool to get two milestones in one night.”
It’s even cooler to watch Rantanen flanking MacKinnon when the latter gets a full head of steam. The way they scare defensive pairs. The way they make the hair on the back of opposing goalies’ necks stand up, on edge, in anticipation of something awful.
Before Saturday, two of the Avs’ three most dangerous forward combos, in terms of expected goals, featured MacKinnon and Rantanen together, according to Moneypuck.com. Nate and Mikko on the same line had accounted for 3.44 expected goals per 60 minutes, Moneypuck says, while Nate on lines without Mikko managed 3.06 per 60. That’s almost half a goal to the good per game — or a difference of plus-32 goals over the course of an 82-game regular season.
“You’ve got to know you’re prepared in a bunch of different avenues of the game. But then you’ve got to go and play,” Bednar said of Rantanen. “So I think it’s just being a good pro — being focused on what you’re doing and staying in the moment, and putting everything you’ve got into whatever you’re doing at that time, is the key to it.”
The Avs have the scratch. Why break up the band? This core has put too much into it, and come too far, to let the Moose get loose now.
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