{"id":448477,"date":"2024-08-17T09:39:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T13:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=448477"},"modified":"2024-08-17T09:39:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T13:39:25","slug":"nhl-rumours-colorado-avalanche-star-contract-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/17\/nhl-rumours-colorado-avalanche-star-contract-update\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Colorado Avalanche Star Contract Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time for another round of NHL rumours. We’re smack dab in the middle of the off-season, but there’s plenty of fodder for the rumour mill. Some huge contracts are coming up at the end of the 2024-25 season. General managers are already trying to get ahead of things and make some deals. The Colorado Avalanche<\/a> have a top-tier player that could hit the free agent market on July 1, 2025. This edition of NHL rumours deals with what the status of a deal for one of their top centres.<\/p>\n

All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n

NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n

Colorado Avalanche Centre Contract Update<\/h3>\n

Rumour: Elliotte Friedman in a summer edition of 32 Thoughts<\/a> discussed what the status of a new deal for Mikko Rantanen<\/a>. The Finnish forward is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the upcoming season.<\/em><\/p>\n

Analysis:<\/em> Rantanen is in the final year of a deal that sees him making $9.25 million per season. The 27-year-old is a key cog in the Avalanche’s attack and is likely to fetch a nice raise. It’s pretty much a given that he’ll get over $10 million.<\/p>\n

There’s always a concern in tying up that much money into one player. However, the left-handed shot seems to be more than worth it. Rantanen had a career-high 55 goals in 2022-23 and is pretty much penciled in for at least 40 goals.<\/p>\n

Friedman added that his sources said there’s optimism about getting a deal done. It doesn’t seem like Rantanen is going to make it to the open market if Colorado has anything to say about it.<\/p>\n

The Shrinking Market<\/h4>\n

General managers have some hefty targets if they hit the open market. Players like Edmonton Oilers<\/a> star Leon Draisaitl<\/a>, Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> legend Sidney Crosby<\/a> and Rantanen are just a few of the names that could change the fortunes of a club if they get to July 1 unsigned.<\/p>\n

However, Friedman stated that teams are starting to take Draisaitl and Rantanen off their boards. It looks like both players are probably going to re-sign with their current clubs. Crosby will also likely stay put it the Steel City. However, armchair GMs can dream until the pen hits the paper.<\/p>\n

Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland does have some hefty contracts on the books like that of Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>, Cale Makar<\/a> and Devon Toews<\/a>. However, it seems like Rantanen is going to stay in the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n

X-Factors<\/h4>\n

There may be a couple of unknowns when it comes to what may shape a Rantanen contract. Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog<\/a> still faces an uncertain future<\/a> in his attempted comeback from injury. The Swede commands a salary of $7 million through the 2027-28 season. One hopes that Landeskog can return, but his salary could be put on long-term injured reserve.<\/p>\n

There’s also the uncertain future of Valeri Nichushkin<\/a>, who is in the NHL\/NHLPA Player Assistance Program<\/a>. The Russian has a cap hit of $6.125 million until the end of the 2027-28 season. MacFarland wants to see if Nichushkin can make a comeback before deciding the next move.<\/p>\n

One wonders if he’ll be moved once things are settled. If Colorado can move that difficult contract, that can free up money for Rantanen. However, it’s going to be a tall task to make that happen.<\/p>\n

It’s almost a given that Rantanen will re-sign in Denver according to Friedman. However, the final cap number is still in the air.<\/p>\n

Main photo by: Michael Ciaglo-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s time for another round of NHL rumours. We’re smack dab in the middle of the off-season, but there’s plenty of fodder for the rumour mill. Some huge contracts are coming up at the end of the 2024-25 season. General managers are already trying to get ahead of things and make some deals. The Colorado […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":136681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[7080,7153,141,301],"class_list":["post-448477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avalanche","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-chris-macfarland","tag-colorado-avalanche-rumours","tag-gabriel-landeskog","tag-mikko-rantanen"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}