Leaving Arizona: Everything you need to know about the Coyotes moving to Salt Lake City
The Arizona Coyotes are on the verge of relocating to Salt Lake City.
The NHL board of governors has to approve the transaction, but all signs point to Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith acquiring the beleaguered franchise, which began its run in the desert back in 1996 following relocation from Winnipeg.
News about the Coyotes’ move hit hyperspeed in the past week after multiple reports of the NHL preparing two different schedules, one with the team in Arizona and another with the team in Utah. The news came just days after the Coyotes had released images of the new arena they hoped to build outside of Phoenix.
What happened? Why is the team moving now, after several other instances in which it should have but didn’t relocate? Here’s the full picture, as we understand it, regarding the past, present and future of the Arizona Coyotes, courtesy of ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark, Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski.
Why Utah?
While the Salt Lake City market has intrigued the NHL, the league’s decision to bring a team to that market is tied to having a deep-pocketed owner that wants one, and an arena ready to house one.
Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, have been seeking an NHL team for a few years. In January, Smith Entertainment Group formally requested that the NHL initiate an expansion process and bring a team to Salt Lake City.
“The Utah expression of interest has been the most aggressive and has carried a lot of energy with it,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at the NHL All-Star Game in February.
Ryan Smith had spent several years building a level of trust with Bettman. He had an arena in Delta Center, home of the Jazz, that had hosted NHL exhibition games. Smith told the NHL there would be renovations to make Delta Center more hockey-friendly if he was ever awarded a franchise.
Smith said in January he didn’t care how he acquired the team, saying: “Our goal is NHL in Utah. And I’ll leave the rest up to Gary.” But an NHL source told ESPN that Smith’s preference was to have an expansion team in Utah — and along with it, the chance to build one through an expansion draft.
His willingness to forgo that and accept a relocation was a key factor in the Coyotes moving to Salt Lake City.
Beyond the building and the owner, the NHL believes it’s a market with a ton of potential for hockey. It’s a winter sports town, and one that’s expected to host the 2034 Winter Olympics — a bid that could produce a new arena for the Jazz and the new NHL team. Salt Lake City has also been experiencing an economic boom: a 2024 report by the Milken Institute ranked Salt Lake City fourth among 403 U.S. cities in growth of jobs, wages and high-tech industry.
Like Arizona, having a team in Utah also fits nicely with the location of several other U.S.-based franchises in the Western Conference. — Wyshynski
How is the transaction going to work?
If approved, multiple sources told ESPN that Smith will pay between $1.2 and $1.3 billion for the team. Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo will receive $1 billion. The rest of the NHL’s owners will split between $200-$300 million as a relocation fee paid by Smith.
Sources have indicated that the total transaction is a complicated one, as it’s not a typical relocation. It’s expected the NHL will buy the Coyotes from Meruelo and sell what’s essentially a clean slate new team to Smith, who will retain the Coyotes’ players and hockey operations staff in the transaction.
This will allow Meruelo the chance to “restart” the Coyotes down the line.
Sources told ESPN that satisfying Meruelo was a key to the transaction. There was concern within the league as far back as NHL All-Star Weekend that Meruelo could wage a prolonged legal battle over relocation if the NHL decided it wanted the franchise moved, due to uncertainty about the Coyotes’ arena plans.
One way to satisfy Meruelo was to give him around $1 billion in the transaction. But Meruelo still wanted to own an NHL team in Arizona and still planned on building an arena for one. So the NHL had to find a creative way to keep the door open for Meruelo in Arizona while moving the current incarnation of the Coyotes.
Meruelo is still seeking to win an auction for a 95-acre parcel of land in north Phoenix, where he intends to build an arena, a practice facility, a theater, housing units and retail. The auction for that land is set for June 27.
It’s the latest arena plan for the team, which has been seeking a permanent home since the city of Glendale terminated its lease with the Coyotes at Gila River Arena following the 2021-22 season. The Coyotes moved to Mullett Arena while seeking an arena solution in Tempe. The Coyotes believed they had one with a 16,000-seat arena in a proposed $2.1 billion entertainment district, but voters rejected that plan in May 2023.
It was after the Tempe vote failed that the NHL began considering its options with Arizona. The league supported Meruelo’s attempt at winning the land auction and building his arena, but questions surrounding its eventual completion were numerous. That included cost, infrastructure and timeline — the Coyotes said shovels wouldn’t be in the ground until 2025, which meant the team would play in Mullett Arena until 2027, if not longer.
Thus, Bettman and the NHL came up with an ingenious way to satisfy their concerns and Meruelo’s needs. It’s expected that the final transaction will include a clause that allows Meruelo to “reactivate” the franchise as an expansion team — paying what’s expected to be a $1 billion expansion fee if that happens — between now and 2029 if his arena project is completed.
All of the team’s intellectual property — including those iconic Kachina jerseys — would remain with Meruelo. It’s an agreement that evokes the deal made with the city of Cleveland when the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1995.
If the project is completed, the NHL can return to a market where it clearly wants to have a team — witness the constant fights to “save” the Coyotes since their bankruptcy in 2009 — and have a state-of-the-art arena ready for an expansion team. If the project doesn’t come to pass, Meruelo walks away with $1 billion for having let the Coyotes move to Utah. — Wyshynski
Are all of the players, coaches and staff going to join the new franchise?
Every NHL team has personnel decisions they must consider in the offseason, and that would have been the case for the Coyotes whether they stayed in Arizona or relocated to Salt Lake City.
Per Cap Friendly, the team has 13 players who are under contract for next season. It’s a group that includes forwards such as Nick Bjugstad, Logan Cooley, Lawson Crouse, Clayton Keller, Matias Maccelli and Nick Schmaltz. Cooley was the third pick of the 2022 draft and is part of a core of homegrown players that includes Josh Doan, Dylan Guenther, Keller and Maccelli, among others.
They have three pending unrestricted free agents, including defenseman Travis Dermott, who could re-sign with the team or head elsewhere. They also have seven restricted free agents who are in need of a new contract. Five of those RFAs are defensemen, such as Sean Durzi, J.J. Moser and Juuso Valimaki.
All those players under contract could either remain with the franchise or get traded elsewhere, which is a scenario that every NHL franchise faces in the offseason.
Still, relocated teams go through changes, which was the case when the Atlanta Thrashers became the Winnipeg Jets after the 2010-11 season.
Of the 38 players that played at least one game for the Thrashers, there were 23 that remained with the club during their inaugural campaign in Winnipeg. It’s a group that included Nik Antropov, Dustin Byfuglien, Evander Kane, Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler.
Atlanta’s transition to Winnipeg also saw changes with the coaching staff and the front office. The Thrashers hired Craig Ramsay at the start of their last season in Atlanta only to have the team’s new ownership group move on from Ramsay and hire Claude Noel, who was the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks‘ AHL affiliate that was already in Winnipeg (the Manitoba Moose).
The Thrashers also hired Rick Dudley as their general manager in April 2010, but he was gone by June 2011. He was replaced with Kevin Cheveldayoff, who has been the only general manager the franchise has known since its time in Winnipeg.
So what’s the situation with the current coaching staff and front office that’s in place?
Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny is about to finish his third season with the club. Back in August, he signed a three-year extension, with general manager Bill Armstrong saying at the time, “He is an excellent coach, leader and communicator who has helped us establish a tremendous culture in our dressing room. Our players like him, respect him and compete hard for him.”
The club also signed assistant coach Mario Duhamel and goaltending coach Corey Schwab to multiyear extensions just days after announcing Tourigny’s new deal.
Less than a month later, the club announced it had signed Armstrong to a multiyear extension. Armstrong has been with the club for four seasons and has overseen an organization that has worked to develop one of the stronger farm systems in the NHL. Back in February, the team also gave contract extensions to director of amateur scouting Darryl Plandowski and associate director of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski. — Clark
What are Coyotes players saying? What are other teams’ players saying?
The team’s players have been guarded publicly with their comments so far, waiting to learn more about how official the situation would become before opening up. They had, after all, answered questions when rumors of the franchising relocating cropped up in years past.
“We’ve just tried to focus on hockey and since I’ve played in Arizona, there’s always been a lot of rumors, so we try to do as best we can to try and focus on hockey,” Keller said. “It was definitely in our heads. You can say it’s not a distraction, but buddies, family, people are always texting and keep putting it in your head. [Tourigny] said we had another opportunity to deal with the same thing and learn from our past mistakes.”
Auston Matthews never suited up for the Coyotes. But if it weren’t for that Arizona-based team, the Scottsdale-raised Matthews may never have believed in pursuing the sport as a kid — a decision that’s led to Matthews becoming a first-overall pick, Hart Trophy winner and Rocket Richard winner as one of the league’s most prolific scorers.
He weighed in on a potential move by the Coyotes prior to the news this weekend that a change was imminent.
“Obviously, selfishly, growing up there with them was a big part of me getting into hockey,” Matthews said Thursday. “I’d love for them to figure it out, but you kind of understand the position the NHL’s in as well.”
Maple Leafs rookie Matthew Knies is another one of the few Arizona-bred players in the NHL, and expressed his disappointment last week about the Coyotes potentially moving elsewhere.
“Not too happy with the situation,” Knies said. “It’s pretty unfortunate. The Coyotes did a lot for me growing up, and I loved going to the games. It was a big reason as to why I got into hockey. But that kind of situation is out of my control. I’m hopeful that they can stay there, because it meant a lot to me, but I guess we’re going to have to see what happens.”
If it weren’t for the Coyotes, Knies said he might not have pursued playing hockey. Naturally he was concerned losing an NHL team in that area will impact how other kids view their opportunity in the sport, and was hopeful the Coyotes would stick.
“When I was growing up, [Arizona] wasn’t the hockey hotbed Colorado or Chicago or Detroit was,” he said. “But it was definitely growing, and you could see the potential there. The Coyotes were a big part of that, and so it’s definitely gotten a lot better. I know a lot of kids are starting to pick up a hockey stick now, and it’s just really good to see. So, again, hope they can stay there.” — Shilton
Will it be the Utah Coyotes, or a new team identity?
Even if there are actual coyotes in the state of Utah, it appears as if there is going to be a new name for the franchise.
Smith, who is also a co-owner of Real Salt Lake in MLS and the Utah Royals in the NWSL, took to social media on April 8 asking, “If an NHL team were to come to Utah, what should we name it?” The question was then followed by a link to a survey.
As of Saturday, the survey was no longer active.
Smith’s post on X generated more than 3 million views and over 1,000 responses. Some of the proposed team names were serious suggestions, while others were a bit more sardonic.
There were some who suggested the new team be called the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, an homage to the professional team that was there from 1969 through 1994 before they left town to become the Detroit Vipers.
Others suggested some winter-themed names such as the Utah Blizzard or the Utah Yeti. But there were some who wondered if that would work given that the Colorado Avalanche are in a neighboring state and have similar elements in their name and uniform design.
A few people chimed in with ideas such as the Utah Buzz, the Utah Hive, the Utah Stingers, the Utah Swarm and the Salt Lake City Swarm. Those are all nods to the state’s extensive relationship with bees. One of Utah’s nicknames is “The Beehive State.” The Western honey bee is the official insect of Utah, while a beehive is featured on the state flag, the state seal and Utah State Route road signs.
And yes, there were some who suggested that they keep Coyotes given there are coyotes in the state. But as noted above, the deal between Meruelo and the NHL is that Meruelo will be able to retain the team name and intellectual property in the hopes of “reactivating” the Coyotes franchise in the future.
There’s also the recent historical precedent that’s been set with relocated NHL teams and changing names. Five of the past six relocated teams have changed their names to something that was more regional in nature.
For example, the Colorado Rockies became the New Jersey Devils while the Quebec Nordiques turned into the Colorado Avalanche. It was the same for when the original Winnipeg Jets became the Coyotes, the Hartford Whalers were changed to the Carolina Hurricanes and the Atlanta Thrashers became the Winnipeg Jets once the NHL came back to Manitoba.
The only team of those six to relocate and keep part of its original name was when the Minnesota North Stars relocated to become the Dallas Stars. The franchise kept “Stars” due to Texas being known as “The Lone Star State.” — Clark
Where will the team play? Will it get a new arena in the future?
The plan right now is for the Utah team to play out of the Delta Center, a facility owned by Smith that is home to the NBA’s Jazz.
However, as ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported, sources have said the NHL told the Smiths there are hockey-specific upgrades needed at Delta Center if it were to become the team’s permanent home.
The venue has hosted preseason NHL games in each of the past four seasons — primarily between L.A. and Vegas — but the current layout would limit sightlines for NHL games and prohibit the Smiths from selling the arena to 18,206-seat capacity (only 10,420 seats were sold for those NHL preseason games).
Given the limited amount of time before puck drop of the 2024-25 season, it’s not as if the Smiths would be expected to completely overhaul their facility overnight. But some alterations will be possible over the summer and more changes could be carried out in the next offseason.
Smith has government support on that front thanks to a bill passed in the Utah State Senate to help fund a renovated entertainment district downtown. That was in anticipation of an NHL franchise potentially relocating there, something to which Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has expressed — and had already given — his approval prior to the weekend’s news. — Shilton
What’s the future of the NHL in Arizona?
The NHL has never wavered about how it values the Arizona market. The league likes the population size, its television audience and its geography in relation to other U.S. teams in the Western Conference. There’s also been a significant youth hockey boom in that market during the franchise’s time in Arizona. NHL players like the Maple Leafs’ Matthews and Knies grew up rooting for the Coyotes.
Bettman has called the Coyotes “a victim of circumstance” when it comes to their struggles in the market, through ownership issues and their arena plights.
“We believe Arizona and particularly the greater Phoenix area is a good NHL market and a place we want to be,” he said in May 2023.
While leaving the door open for Meruelo to own an expansion franchise in a new arena was clearly a way to satisfy him in the relocation gambit, the fact remains that the NHL appears committed to bringing an expansion team back to Arizona. Bettman has been steadfast in saying that the NHL is not currently in an expansion mode, but cities like Houston and Atlanta are also showing significant interest. — Wyshynski
Timeline of the NHL’s Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes (1995-2024)
1995: The Winnipeg Jets are sold to Minnesota businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke, who intended to move them to Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 1996-97 season. After being unable to work out a lease agreement in the Twin Cities, they instead opted to move the team to Phoenix.
1996: The now-Phoenix Coyotes play in America West Arena, home of the NBA’s Suns, in a facility that was suboptimal for hockey. Players on that inaugural team included Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick, Hall of Famer Mike Gartner, goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and Shane Doan, who played his rookie season with the Jets and then 20 seasons with the Coyotes.
2001: Burke, now the primary owner, sells the Coyotes to an ownership group that includes Phoenix-area developer Steve Ellman and NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, who was a part-owner and the team’s new president of hockey operations.
2003: After attempts to further retrofit America West Arena and build a new building in Scottsdale failed, Ellman turned his attention to West Valley. In 2001, he signed a lease agreement with the city of Glendale to build a new arena. On Dec. 27, 2003, the Coyotes played their first game at Glendale Arena, beginning a run of 18 seasons there. As attendance for the team fell from a high of 15,582 tickets distributed per game in 2005-06 to just 11,989 in 2009-10, the arena’s location away from where many Coyotes fans lived became a point of criticism.
2005: Jerry Moyes, a trucking magnate who was also a part-owner of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, buys the Coyotes from Ellman. Gretzky becomes head coach of the team, a position he held for four seasons without a playoff berth.
2006: The Coyotes were set to host the 2006 NHL All-Star Game, which never happened due to the NHL players’ involvement in the 2006 Winter Olympics. The Coyotes would never host an All-Star Game or draft in their time in Arizona.
2009: Media reports revealed that the Coyotes were hemorrhaging money and being propped by up by the NHL. In May, Moyes put the team into bankruptcy with the intention of having Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, former CEO of BlackBerry creator Research In Motion, relocate the team to Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. The NHL stripped Moyes of his ownership authority. In bankruptcy hearing, the NHL put in a bid against that of Balsillie and argued that this bid, if accepted by the court, would have circumvented NHL rules. The court sided with the NHL, which took over the team and sought a new owner that would keep the franchise in Arizona.
2012: Under coach Dave Tippett, the Coyotes win their only division title and make their only conference final. After qualifying for the playoffs in their first four seasons in Phoenix, the Coyotes would make the playoff tournament only four times before relocating.
2013: After close calls with potential owners like Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Chicago investor Matt Hulsizer, former San Jose Sharks owner Greg Jamison and “Ice Edge Holdings,” the NHL finally unloaded the Coyotes to an ownership collective called IceArizona and Renaissance Sports and Entertainment for a reported $225 million. That came with a 15-year lease with the city of Glendale that ended speculation that the team would relocate to Seattle.
2014: The team rebrands as the Arizona Coyotes. IceArizona sells a controlling interest in the Coyotes to hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway.
2015: The Glendale City Council votes 5-2 to end its 15-year agreement for the Coyotes to manage and play at Gila River Arena, opting for short-term leases at a reduced rate for the city.
2016: The Coyotes announce plans for an arena in Tempe for the 2019-20 season that would have created facilities for the Arizona State University hockey team. ASU pulls out of the deal in 2017.
2019: Barroway sells the majority of the Coyotes to billionaire Alex Meruelo, the first Latino owner in the NHL. Meruelo takes full control of the team in 2023.
2021: The city of Glendale and the Gila River Arena choose not to renew their operating agreement with the Coyotes beyond the 2021-22 season.
2022: The Coyotes move to Mullett Arena, a 5,000-seat facility on the campus of ASU and home to the school’s men’s hockey team, signing a three-year lease with options that carried through 2027. The team and the NHL called it a temporary move while the Coyotes attempted to secure a new arena site.
2023: Meruelo’s proposal to turn a Tempe landfill into a $2.1 billion arena and entertainment complex is defeated in a public vote, a result that was shocking for the franchise and the NHL. Bettman called it “terribly disappointing” and said “we are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward.”
2024: While Coyotes fans and players prepared for the team to bid on a parcel of land near Phoenix for a potential new arena in the summer, the possibility arose of Meruelo selling the franchise, with the NHL and the Smith Entertainment Group relocating it to Salt Lake City. — Wyshynski
Joey Logano has found a way to tune out months of negativity.
Critics? Naysayers? Anyone who thinks his third Cup Series championship was a fluke?
“I can’t hear it because my trophies, they kind of, like, echo around me,” Logano quipped during a videoconference call with media Wednesday.
Logano won his third title in November, sparking debate about whether NASCAR’s current playoff format is the best way to determine the series’ worthiest champion. Few could make a strong case for that being Logano in 2024.
He won four races, had 13 top-10 finishes and rarely had the car to beat over 37 events.
He got huge breaks along the way, too. He used what amounted to a Hail Mary to win in Nashville — stretching his empty fuel tank through five overtimes — just to qualify for the postseason. And then he was actually eliminated from playoff contention in the second round only to be reinstated when Alex Bowman’s car failed a postrace inspection.
While competitors have since called for NASCAR to tweak its playoff format, with some wanting to move the finale to a different track every year instead of keeping it at Phoenix Raceway, Logano — not surprisingly — believes the setup is just fine.
“The playoff system is very entertaining,” he said, adding that teams often get hot in other sports and win it all. “It takes a lot to get through the 10 races to win the championship. … When the playoffs start, a lot of times you see teams that fire up.
“And we’ve been one of those teams, thankfully, and it’s worked out for us three times. But I don’t think that means you have to change the playoff system.”
NASCAR said earlier this week that no tweaks would be made to the championship format in 2025. Instead, officials plan to study it for another year before making any decisions. That won’t stop drivers from stumping for a makeover.
“I think it deserves a look for sure and probably a change down the road,” Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron said. “I just don’t know what that change is. I feel like we’ve just gotten into such a routine of going to the same racetrack for the final race, and having similar tracks that lead up to it has gotten a little bit predictable. But you could say probably the same thing in other sports, with the [Kansas City] Chiefs hosting the AFC championship every year.
“It’s just kind of the nature of sports, probably; it gets a little bit repetitive. But it’d be nice to see the final race to move around.”
Team Penske has won the last three Cup Series titles, with Logano sandwiching championships around teammate Ryan Blaney. All of those came in Phoenix, where the finale landed in 2020 after nearly two decades at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
NASCAR has made wholesale changes to its schedule in recent years, including moving the season-opening Clash and the all-atar race.
The Clash bounced from Daytona International Speedway to the Los Angeles Coliseum and is now headed to historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for Sunday’s exhibition.
The all-star race went from North Carolina to Tennessee to Texas before landing back in North Carolina.
No one would be surprised to see the finale end up with similar movement.
“We have some tracks that could be awesome for the championship, like Vegas and Homestead and even Charlotte,” Byron said. “Just being open to all the different ideas would probably be cool and bring some buzz and also just kind of even the competition out.”
With no changes in sight for now, Logano, 34, can focus on a fourth championship. He’s one of six drivers with three Cup titles and needs another to join Jeff Gordon (4), Dale Earnhardt (7), Jimmie Johnson (7) and Richard Petty (7) as the only guys with at least four.
“Probably not until I’m done racing will I be content with what I have because I’m not done yet,” Logano said. “I got a lot of years ahead of me to win more championships and races.
“As great as it is, the first 20 minutes is amazing because you’re celebrating with your team and your family. And then every day [after] it becomes a little less exciting and more thoughts of, ‘We got to do it again.'”
Another one surely would do a lot to drown out those detractors.
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Greg Wyshynski
Mikko Rantanen has been a member of the Carolina Hurricanes for nearly a week, but it’s going to take a bit longer than that for the shock to subside.
Carolina stunned the NHL last Friday night by acquiring Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche in a three-way deal that also sent Chicago Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall to the Hurricanes. Entering Wednesday night, Rantanen was tied for sixth in the NHL in scoring (65 points). Since the 2021-22 season, the 28-year-old winger was fifth with 365 points in 286 games, including back-to-back 100-point seasons.
The NHL simply does not see this level of offensive superstar traded within the regular season; nor does it see teams with designs on the Stanley Cup move on from foundational core players like Colorado did with Rantanen. But his contract demands, as a pending unrestricted free agent, created a significant impasse with the Avalanche, with whom he had played for 10 seasons.
Rantanen told ESPN on Tuesday that he still hasn’t reached out to all the Avalanche teammates he wants to connect with. Both teams were right back in action in the aftermath of the trade, and Rantanen has been in a personal hurricane of reorienting his new life in Raleigh.
He knows players like Nathan MacKinnon have expressed their disappointment in seeing him traded. The feeling is mutual.
“I thought it was going to be an extension for sure. I can’t lie about that,” Rantanen said. “It was surprising because there was still some time to the deadline. I totally understand they didn’t want to lose me for free. But it surprised me for sure. I didn’t expect it at all.”
Nor did the rest of the NHL, which is still processing one of the biggest blockbusters of the last decade. We spoke with several NHL executives, agents and players to get a sense of the trade’s magnitude and the fallout that could impact more than just the teams involved.
Is this the right gamble for Carolina?
The Hurricanes were in New York when the Rantanen trade went down, with a game against the Islanders on the following evening. The players were at dinner when the news broke about Hall and then Rantanen. The tone and tenor of the meal quickly changed.
“We didn’t know who was going the other way. We all tried to figure out who it was,” center Jesperi Kotkaniemi said.
Kotkaniemi started getting texts from Finnish friends. “They’re really pumped in Finland. They’re able to watch the two best players now on the same team. So what could be better for them?” he said of Rantanen and center Sebastian Aho.
But then something else happened on social media: It was erroneously reported that Kotkaniemi himself would be sent to the Avalanche in the Rantanen trade.
On the surface, it made sense: He’s a 24-year-old forward signed through 2029-30 at a reasonable cap hit ($4.82 million annually), but he was never part of the package for Rantanen. Still, his name was out there long enough for another wave of text messages to roll in about his own future, which made the situation a bit more intense for him.
“It was a very hectic 15 minutes there,” he said.
It’s been a hectic few weeks for Eric Tulsky, in his first season as Hurricanes general manager. The league was buzzing about Carolina being active in the trade market. Sources told ESPN that the Hurricanes and Vancouver Canucks had engaged in negotiations about forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. The players’ longstanding feud had finally reached a boiling point, and Vancouver was seeking to ship one or both of them out before the March 7 trade deadline.
Kotkaniemi and forward Jack Roslovic were discussed in the framework of a Miller trade. Martin Necas wasn’t on the table for Miller, but might have been part of a deal for Pettersson.
Meanwhile, Carolina was also engaged in talks with the Avalanche for Rantanen, ones that tracked back to last summer.
Tulsky said last week that 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.”
When the music stopped, Rantanen and Hall were members of the Hurricanes.
The Avalanche picked up Carolina forwards Necas and Jack Drury, as well as a second-round pick in this year’s draft and a fourth-rounder in 2026. Chicago acquired its 2025 third-rounder from Carolina for Hall, the rights to Swedish forward Nils Juntorp and 50% retention of Rantanen’s $9.25 million salary cap hit. The Hurricanes ended up with Hall, a former Hart Trophy winner as league MVP, and Rantanen.
“Obviously, Carolina has been coveting a superstar and this is the way to get one,” one agent said.
NHL executives were impressed with the boldness of the swing from Carolina.
“Good for them. Risk and reward,” a general manager said. “They’re giving up controllable assets for someone that you’re not sure you can control. But they have the cap space to sign him. He’s a great player who makes them a better team.”
The executives we spoke with downplayed the notion that the Hurricanes might have started an “arms race” in the Eastern Conference among contenders. One general manager said that most teams have their own plans in mind for the NHL trade deadline for specific needs that won’t be torn up because a rival made a blockbuster trade.
There were virtues to all three players the Hurricanes were considering. Miller and Pettersson were both signed with lengthy term. Miller seemed cut from a Rod Brind’Amour mold as a great, two-way player who’s difficult to play against. (Depending on who you believe, he’s also a bit difficult to play with as a teammate.) Pettersson has been underwhelming this season, but has incredible upside as a star offensive. In 2022-23, he had 103 points in 80 games for Vancouver.
But Rantanen’s combination of size, skill and offensive consistency was too much for the Hurricanes to pass up. Especially when one considers his Stanley Cup Playoff success: Since 2019-20, Rantanen is fifth in postseason scoring, with 83 points in 63 games, including 28 goals.
Carolina has made the playoffs for six straight seasons, each time not producing enough offense to advance out of the conference. In that span, the Hurricanes have a .486 winning percentage in one-goal games.
The downside to acquiring Rantanen, potentially: They currently don’t know if he’ll be one-and-done in Raleigh, a superstar rental for a team that’s yet to play for the Stanley Cup with Brind’Amour as their coach.
“Carolina will look stupid if they lose in the first round and he walks away to another team,” an agent said. “But I think they’re going to sign him. I think he’ll like it there.”
Did Colorado make the right call?
Nathan MacKinnon was already in a mood after the Avalanche lost to the Boston Bruins last Saturday.
“I wish I could have talked about this not right now,” he said.
But this was the first opportunity for the media to ask Colorado’s star center about losing his linemate and close friend Mikko Rantanen.
“Just sad, obviously. Losing Mikko … really great friend for 10 years. Won a Cup together. I don’t really know what happened,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate losing a great friend and a great teammate.”
Rantanen was seeking a contract in the neighborhood of the eight-year extension Leon Draisaitl signed with the Edmonton Oilers in September. That deal carries an average annual value of $14 million. Both Rantanen and Draisaitl are represented by agent Andy Scott.
The winger has said he was willing to take less than market value to remain in Colorado, but it’s unclear what that number actually looked like with regard to market value.
MacKinnon tried to stay out of Rantanen’s business on a new contract. The ticking clock didn’t bother him. He assumed it would play out much like Gabriel Landeskog‘s negotiations with the team did back in 2021, when the latter signed an eight-year, $56 million extension hours before free agency. But MacKinnon was wrong.
“I never thought in a million years he’d leave. It just sucks,” he said.
But Rantanen’s departure was something the Avalanche and GM Chris MacFarland believed was a possibility. The Avalanche and Hurricanes had been discussing Rantanen since last summer. Tulsky said the teams tabled “serious offers” for the winger during the past six to eight weeks. The Hurricanes were pushing hard to complete the trade in the past two weeks.
Others around the league knew it was a possibility too.
“I wasn’t surprised. For me, it wasn’t a secret,” a GM said. “The potential was there because of their situation — that he can’t go over MacKinnon [in AAV] or whatever. And I know that Carolina wasn’t the only team they were speaking with about Rantanen.”
MacKinnon makes $12.6 million against the salary cap on a deal that runs through 2030-31. Before signing that deal in Sept. 2022, he talked about taking less than market value — on a contract that made him the highest paid player in the league at the time — in order to “win with the group.” It’s the same mindset exhibited by his friend and mentor Sidney Crosby with the Pittsburgh Penguins over Crosby’s career.
But the contract that really influenced the Rantanen deal was one that hasn’t been signed yet: Cale Makar‘s next deal, which will begin in 2027-28. Considered by some to be the best offensive defenseman since Bobby Orr, Makar could earn the largest NHL contract for a defenseman ever.
“I think they made a decision that you can have two players but not three players making more than $12 million per season,” an agent said. “They knew, ballpark, the number for Cale Makar. So their decision was, ‘We can have two, but not three. Who do we keep?'”
So MacFarland had a choice to make: Top-load his roster with three star players gobbling up a large percentage of the salary cap or break up their holy hockey trinity. MacFarland made it clear that in doing the latter, he was acknowledging the team didn’t have championship depth and needed the flexibility to get it back.
“It’s clear we are not deep enough. I think that you’ve got to be deep to go four rounds, and hopefully this is going to help that,” MacFarland said. “Obviously Mikko is a superstar. You can’t replace that. But he’s a superstar that earned the right to be a free agent.”
One agent was skeptical of the negotiation: “I don’t feel they ever really were interested in signing him.”
Another agent felt the Avalanche did what they had to do. “It was the right trade for Colorado, because they couldn’t afford to pay Rantanen what he wanted within the context of their salary structure. He didn’t have full trade protection, so good move by them to trade him,” they said.
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Mikko Rantanen nets goal for Avalanche
Mikko Rantanen nets goal for Avalanche
MacFarland called it “a tough business decision” for the team. “It hurts, right. He’s a homegrown talent. He’s a superstar person. He’s a superstar human being,” he said.
Of course, there are other “business decisions” to think about in Denver or any NHL market.
“There’s an argument to be made that keeping Rantanen makes sense because you’re selling tickets. It doesn’t really matter ultimately if you win the Cup, but you have to be good every year. That guy is going to allow you to make the playoffs every year,” another general manager said. “But I could also make the argument that winning the Cup trumps everything else, and that winning it buys you a few seasons of a steady revenue stream no matter what your success is in those seasons.”
MacFarland has made it clear that teams usually have to draft and develop players like Rantanen. “We’re going to have to try and replace him in the aggregate; 50-goal scorers don’t grow on trees,” he said.
But what if he could be replaced?
“You could make the argument that Rantanen is a unicorn, and that you’re not finding another player like that,” a general manager said. “That said, what’s your opportunity cost? Could you find another 100-point winger like that? What could you trade to find that?”
One agent believes the Avalanche could find that player because of MacKinnon.
“Something no one seems to be discussing: I think the Avalanche believe that MacKinnon was a big part of Rantanen’s success, and that they would be able to put another guy with MacKinnon, pay him less and have comparable success,” they said.
Right now that player is Necas, who was immediately placed with MacKinnon after the trade. The speedy winger led the Hurricanes in scoring this season and has another year on his contract at $6.5 million AAV.
MacFarland said it was important to have Necas and Drury, an “emerging player” down the lineup, under contract and “cost-controlled” beyond this season. He said the trade would allow the Avalanche to potentially make more moves before the March 7 deadline. Many sources are wondering if the Avalanche would target a center to play behind MacKinnon, with players like the Islanders’ Brock Nelson in the conversation.
“I think we’re always sort of looking to get better. Certainly, over the next few weeks that won’t change. I think obviously there are a little more bullets in the draft-pick cupboard and some cap space,” MacFarland said.
But no Mikko Rantanen any longer.
‘What is Chicago doing?’
The Blackhawks’ role in the Rantanen trade had observers around the NHL baffled.
“What the f— is Chicago doing?” one NHL executive asked.
The Blackhawks retained half of Rantanen’s salary and cap hit, while also trading Hall to the Hurricanes. For that, they received their own 2025 third-round draft pick that Carolina had acquired from Chicago at the 2024 draft.
In recent trades, a third-party team retaining 25% of a player’s salary to facilitate a transaction has typically received a fourth-round pick. Chicago retaining that much cap space ($4.625 million) for 50% of a player’s salary and including a veteran forward with Hall’s abilities in a deal for only one third-round pick in return left many criticizing the return for the Blackhawks. But NHL insiders acknowledge there may have been some method to Chicago’s perceived madness.
One aspect of the trade that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention is the actual salaries for Rantanen and Hall this season. Rantanen’s contract has a declining real-dollar value to where he was making only $6 million this season after having a base salary of $12 million in the first two years of the deal. Hall made $5.25 million this season. As one general manager noted, from a base salary perspective, the Blackhawks are paying slightly more for the rest of Rantanen’s contract than they would have if Hall finished the season with them.
“Essentially, Chicago was asked to sell a little cap space with the money being the same. They get a third for Hall — which to me is a little low — but effectively that’s what they’re doing,” one general manager said.
Davidson said that trading Hall was the logical move now because things frankly weren’t going to get better for him in Chicago leading up to the trade deadline. “You run the risk of things like injury, the role was diminishing almost by the game, and it just wasn’t heading towards a way that was going to maximize or enhance value,” he said.
As one NHL agent put it: “I know Kyle Davidson’s taking a lot of heat, but I don’t think he probably was going to get much better for Taylor Hall than what he got.”
There’s no question it hasn’t been the happiest season for Hall in Chicago. Former head coach Luke Richardson surprised him by making him a healthy scratch earlier this season. He had nine goals in 46 games. One NHL executive suggested that moving Hall out now could benefit the vibes inside Chicago’s dressing room.
But moving him out now also means not having to use Chicago’s last salary retention spot to move him later, which Davidson would undoubtedly have to do to make a trade work at the deadline. Now that slot is available for another deadline trade involving a player like forward Ryan Donato ($2 million AAV) or defenseman Alec Martinez ($4 million AAV), both of whom are unrestricted free agents after the season; or a more coveted player in forward Jason Dickinson, who has two years left at $4.25 million AAV.
Will Carolina sign Rantanen?
The Hurricanes now have the chance to do something no other team can do for Rantanen this offseason: Give him an eight-year contract. Per the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement, everyone else can only go as high as seven years.
“Where is he going to go for seven years instead of the eight that Carolina can give him? If they’re willing to go eight years and $13 million annually, where else would he want to go that’s good that can afford him?” one agent pondered.
Rantanen told me that the Hurricanes’ ability to give him an eighth year will be a factor in his eventual free-agent decision. But those negotiations are a ways off. He’s got other things to think about now.
“To be honest, I haven’t had any chance to think about an extension, just trying to get into the group and try to play well,” he said. “So I think we’ll have to think about those situations in a couple weeks or so.”
What’s been interesting in chatting with sources about Rantanen and the Hurricanes is that the money doesn’t seem to be a concern. Owner Tom Dundon is infamous for his tough negotiations on contracts for everyone from players to his own coaches. But the assumption is that the Hurricanes had a ballpark idea of what Rantanen is looking for on his next contract and were comfortable going there in negotiations.
Obviously, the Hurricanes faced a similar situation when they traded for Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel at the deadline last season and attempted to sign him to an extension, only to see the Tampa Bay Lightning ink him instead.
But Tulsky said the conditions are more favorable to keep Rantanen than they were for retaining Guentzel. Last season, the Hurricanes didn’t have the cap flexibility to sign Guentzel and the other players they wanted. This offseason, Tulsky estimates the team could have between $35 million to $40 million in cap space.
“Our team situation is totally different right now,” he said. “We don’t feel nearly as constrained.”
So if it’s not the money and it’s not the percentage of the salary cap, what is the make-or-break thing for Rantanen staying with the Hurricanes?
“I think they will ultimately sign him, unless he absolutely hates it there,” one agent concluded.
Tulsky admitted that the Hurricanes’ current approach to Rantanen is “more of a recruiting pitch than a negotiation in my mind.” They have to sell him on the franchise, the system, the players on the roster and on the way and, most of all, spending the next eight years of his life in Raleigh.
Sebastian Aho has not affixed “Ambassador” to his name, but it might as well be there. He’s been a friend and Finnish national team teammate for Rantanen throughout their lives. Aho has starred with Carolina since 2016-17. No one on the Hurricanes is better equipped to sell Rantanen on Raleigh and the franchise.
“I guess it’s just about making him feel comfortable, making him feel welcome. I think that goes a long way,” Aho said. “But obviously if he wants to go play a round of golf, I’m not saying no to that.”
What if Rantanen goes to market?
There isn’t yet certainty on the NHL’s salary cap in the near term. Some projections have it jumping from $88 million to upwards of $97 million next season. From there, the sky’s the limit.
One agent said that as the salary cap rises, some teams will claim they have an internal cap that only allows them to offer so much money to players. But after one or two huge contracts are handed out that elevate teams to the new ceiling, that dogma will go out the window.
“Competitiveness is going to kick in. GMs and owners are going to decide that they need to spend more to stay competitive,” the agent said.
The opportunity has never been greater for a player like Rantanen to maximize his earning potential on the open market. Leon Draisaitl’s contract with the Oilers was $112 million over eight years, or $14 million AAV.
“I think he’ll get Draisaitl-like money as a UFA,” one agent predicted.
“There are probably some good teams that might be willing to go seven years at $14 million annually to get him,” another said.
Draisaitl’s contract is one factor, but there’s another winger potentially going to market this summer seeking a big contract: Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who is in the last year of a six-year contract with a $10.903 million AAV.
As far as possible suitors, two of the NHL’s richest franchises come to mind:
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The New York Rangers continue to aggressively try to reshape their roster. They nearly completed a trade for Miller with the Canucks in recent weeks, with center Filip Chytil as the centerpiece. But salary retention and draft pick conditions were reported sticking points. If they’re able to create the necessary space — moving out a veteran like Chris Kreider or Mika Zibanejad — Rantanen is the kind of shiny new toy the franchise finds hard to resist. Consider also that winger Artemi Panarin will be in the last year of his contract in 2025-26 at an $11,642,857 AAV.
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The other team is already paying part of Rantanen’s salary: The Chicago Blackhawks. They’re expected to be in on every player they can this offseason in an attempt to quickly build a contender around young star Connor Bedard. The 19-year-old phenom has shown some discontent at dwelling in the Central Division cellar in the first two seasons of his NHL career. Putting a top five scorer like Rantanen on his wing would certainly put a smile on his face. Needless to say, Chicago has the money and the cap space to attempt it — if not the competitive team that Rantanen might be compelled to join.
Then there’s a wild card played recently by insider Andy Strickland, who is the rinkside reporter for the St. Louis Blues on FanDuel Sports Network. On his “Cam & Stick” podcast, Strickland said Rantanen will sign with the Edmonton Oilers this summer.
“They’re going to be able to pay him and I think there would be some interest from him,” he said, noting that Draisaitl and Rantanen share an agent. Strickland said the acquisition of Rantanen would also be an enticement for star Connor McDavid to re-sign, as he becomes an unrestricted free agent in summer 2026.
The magnitude of this trade, and the star quality of the player, lend themselves to this kind of speculation. The Hurricanes have some advantages in seeking to keep Rantanen. But they won’t be alone if he tests the market.
“Assuming he doesn’t hate the system and the environment there, I think he signs with Carolina,” one agent said. “If he doesn’t care where he plays, all bets are off.”
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