Not sure if it’s been posted here but Rantanen did an interview with a Finnish newspaper claiming he was willing to sign with Colorado for below market value and was shocked by the trade because he thought they were still negotiating. I’m paraphrasing but that’s essentially what he said.
I’m sure both sides will have different interpretations of what “below market value” is (i.e. $13 million could be considered below market value)… but it seems like there was poor communication between everyone involved. Seems like the Avs were quick to switch to the trade route. Why not communicate to his agent that they cannot let him walk to free agency and have nothing to show for it? That if they didn’t have a deal in place by a certain point, they would have to look into trading him. At least if they did that, it could have put pressure on the negotiations to get to the “final offer” stage.
Huge risk losing Rantanen like this especially in the middle of their contention window. The reactions from the Colorado players and even the coach make them look gutted/frustrated with management. I feel like sticking to the “Rantanen can’t make more than McKinnon” policy is a foolish move on their part. Malkin made more than Crosby at one point simply because his contract came up at a later point. I don’t know the numbers but if the difference in keeping or losing a player like Rantanen was $1 million in AAV, I think that’s it’s a huge mistake to trade him.
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