At the end of the season, Dallas felt good to Mikko Rantanen. He was traded to Carolina in January and later moved to the Dallas Stars in a subsequent trade. The Finnish native has since signed an eight-year, $96 million deal with Dallas.
Before entering the trade block, Rantanen had been with Colorado since he was drafted as the No. 10 overall pick in 2015. He had a total of 64 points with 25 goals and 39 assists with the Avalanche before being traded away.
Mikko Rantanen Says He’s Grateful for Change to Dallas
Despite all this moving around and being accused of not contributing to roster depth, Rantanen posted pictures on his Instagram profile on Friday, which highlighted the rest of his season with the Stars.
“Change is never easy, but I’m grateful for the journey this season that brought me to the Stars. Thank you to the entire Dallas organization and fanbase for a warm welcome.
I’m excited for the future of this team. Enjoy your summer Stars fans and see you in September,” Rantanen wrote on his Instagram.
From Mikko Rantanen on Instagram:
“Change is never easy, but I’m grateful for the journey this season that brought me to the Stars.” pic.twitter.com/Al7BK45Cy1
— Lia Assimakopoulos (@Lassimak) June 13, 2025
With Rantanen on their roster, the Stars qualified for the playoffs as the No. 2 seed from the West. Dallas was eliminated from Stanley Cup contention in a 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, who are currently competing against the Florida Panthers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
Rantanen had 22 points off nine goals and 13 assists across 18 games in this year’s postseason. If we limit his statistics to only his time on the Dallas roster during the regular season, the 6’4″ left-handed right wing earned 18 points across 20 games.
According to Antonio Losada of Yahoo Sports, Colorado Avalanche President Joe Sakic said Rantanen was simply traded before the deadline due to salary cap limitations and the desire to improve roster depth.
“Just paying three high-end guys and not having a surrounding cast wasn’t gonna get it done,” Sakic said. “You look at where we were in the last few years, we weren’t good enough. We won in ’22 because we had our stars, but we were also deep. And you can’t win the Stanley Cup without it. And the status quo wasn’t good enough.”
Nonetheless, with Rantanen settling nicely into Dallas, it’ll be fun to watch him make the most of the new scene.
