Grading Hurricanes’ Blockbuster Trade for Mikko Rantanen & Taylor Hall – The Hockey Writers NHL Trade Analysis Latest News, Analysis & More

Well, this trade deadline is off to one hell of a start, and the actual trade deadline isn’t until March 7. The Colorado Avalanche, Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes linked up for one of the biggest midseason trades in NHL history this evening, sending Taylor Hall and Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes. Here are the full details:

Trade call underway now. Full deal:

To #RaiseUp: Mikko Rantanen, Taylor Hall

To #GoAvsGo: Martin Necas, Jack Drury, 2025 2nd Round Pick, 2026 4th Round Pick (all from Carolina)

To #Blackhawks: 2025 3rd Round Pick (their own returned from Carolina), 50% of Rantanen’s salary

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 25, 2025

There’s plenty to unpack, but the Hurricanes are the real winners. Rantanen is the stud scorer they haven’t had in years and something they’ve needed to make a run in the playoffs. As for the Avalanche, they knew Rantanen wasn’t re-signing, so they cut their losses and opened up cap space to make more moves while acquiring a fine top-six scorer in Necas.

Hurricanes Pull Off a Whopper

Let’s start with the Hurricanes because they shocked the world tonight. New general manager Eric Tulsky got bold and pulled off one of the most creative in-season trades we’ve seen in years. Rantanen had 64 points in 49 games at the time of the deal — a 107-point pace over 82 games.

Rantanen is a unique forward in today’s NHL, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound power forward with elite scoring ability. He’s an efficient five-on-five scorer, plus finisher, and will contribute to the power play. He’s the type of forward that should fit perfectly with how the Hurricanes want to play under head coach Rod Brind’Amour.

Related: Hurricanes Acquire Rantanen & Hall in 3-Team Trade With Avalanche & Blackhawks

As for Hall, he’s not the player he used to be, but he’s still on pace for 40-plus points. He remains solid in transition and can create offense off the rush, specifically through his playmaking ability. The Hurricanes have been playing off the rush more than in previous seasons in 2024-25, so Hall should help. He’ll give them a bit of a different look.

Initially, it looked like only Hall was going to the Hurricanes. He would’ve been a fine enough addition for their middle six, but combined with Rantanen, they have one of the most threatening top nines in the NHL, even if their center depth is a bit questionable. This trade was a home run for the Hurricanes, and they might be the favorites to win the Eastern Conference now.

Hurricanes Grade: A+

Avalanche Make the Best of a Tough Situation

The Avalanche may have moved a top-3 winger in the NHL, but Necas is not a bum. Far from it. He’s not scoring at the torrid pace he was at the start of the season, but he still has 55 points in 49 games — a 92-point pace over 82 games. He’s not Rantanen. They’re very different players, but he should help the Avalanche.

Necas is one of the best skaters in the league and can create plenty of offense off the rush, which fits in perfectly with how the Avalanche want to play. He’s much more of a playmaker than Rantanen, but he still regularly produces at a 20-30-goal pace. He should be able to keep his point-per-game pace if the plan is to play him alongside Nathan MacKinnon, which I imagine is what they’re thinking.

The Avalanche also added Jack Drury, who has nine points in 36 games this season. I wouldn’t call him a throw-in per se, as he should help improve the Avalanche’s fourth line. He’s a very good defensive forward and will probably contribute to the team’s penalty kill.

Another underrated aspect of this trade for the Avalanche is they freed up about a little over $1 million in cap space, and I’m sure they have more moves coming. They wouldn’t deal Rantanen this far ahead of the trade deadline if they didn’t have other moves in the works. What that is remains to be seen, but they’re probably working on something else.

Overall, the Avalanche did alright. A team rarely wins a trade where they deal a player of Rantanen’s caliber. The Avalanche didn’t win it, but didn’t lose it since they acquired Necas. He’s having a career season and has a manageable cap hit of $6.5 million for the next year and a half. They could have done much worse.

Avalanche grade: B

Blackhawks…Shrug Emoji

I’m not going to lie. I don’t know what the Blackhawks are getting out of this deal. They retained $5 million on Rantanen’s cap hit and received a third-round pick, and…that’s it? Is the third-round pick for Hall? Is it just Rantanen’s salary? It’s a bit baffling.

Either way, the Blackhawks are the real losers of this deal. It feels like they should have gotten more for retaining 50 percent on Rantanen and trading Hall. Instead, they got just a third-round pick and nothing else. It doesn’t seem like the best asset management from a rebuilding team that needs to collect assets efficiently.

Blackhawks Grade: D