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Carolina Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky said his team has the desire and the financial flexibility to give newly acquired star winger Mikko Rantanen the massive new contract he's seeking ahead of unrestricted free agency this offseason.

That is, if he wants to remain with the Hurricanes.

"At this point it's more of a recruiting pitch than a negotiation in my mind," said Tulsky on Saturday.

"[Rantanen] is an incredible player. If he gets to free agency, I'm sure there will be teams that will pay him a lot of money, and so our job in the next weeks and months is to make it so he wants to be here," he said. "He has the right as a free agent to decide where to sign and it may not come down to the money for him. It may come down to where he wants to be. So our goal is to make him want to be here and then offer enough money that he doesn't have to think twice about it."

Last season, the Hurricanes didn't have the cap flexibility to sign Guentzel and the other players they wanted on the roster. This offseason, Tulsky estimates the team could have between $35-$40 million in cap space. The Hurricanes will be the only team able to give Rantanen an 8-year contract, per NHL CBA rules.

"Our team situation is totally different right now," he said. "We don't feel nearly as constrained."

The Avalanche and Hurricanes had been discussing Rantanen since last summer. Tulsky said the last 6-8 weeks saw them table "serious offers" for the winger. The Hurricanes were pushing hard to complete the trade in the last two weeks.

Those talks with Colorado were happening at the same time Carolina was discussing trades with other teams. Sources told ESPN that the Hurricanes and Vancouver Canucks had engaged in negotiations about forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.

Tulsky said that in the last week there was a desire for all parties to "get their best offers on the table" so the Hurricanes could decide which player to pursue.

"Everybody had multiple offers. It was sort of time for everyone to figure out what they wanted to do and this deal got done," he said. "It was a complicated dance."

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...rees-extension