NHL News
Devils Rival Linked to Superstar Avalanche Forward in Potential NHL Trade
Could Mikko Rantanen be headed to Manhattan if a deal can’t get done with the Colorado Avalanche?

The 2025 NHL Trade Deadline is less than two months away. As we inch closer to it, more and more rumors circulate, and the latest is a doozy. There’s been some chatter around the New Jersey Devils. Although, the Devils are going well and are somewhat in a position to sit and wait. However, their rival, the New York Rangers, are fighting for their lives to get themselves back in playoff position. Recently, one NHL insider linked Colorado Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen to the Blueshirts in a potential NHL trade.
MORE: Report: New Jersey Monitoring Canadiens Forward for Potential Devils Trade
Certainly, it’s not what Devils fans want to hear.
Rantanen doesn’t get a ton of oxygen in Colorado, with the likes of Nathan Mackinnon and Cale Makar stealing the spotlight.
Yet, Rantanen is certainly a star in his own right. The 28-year-old Finnish forward—who will play with Erik Haula at the 4 Nations Faceoff—has back-to-back 100-plus point seasons, scoring 55 and 42 goals respectively over the last two years.
Currently, Rantanen’s collected 25 goals and 60 points in 44 games, which equates to a 47-goal, 111-point season over 82 games. In other words, Rantanen is in line to do it again, and shatter his career-high in points.
Certainly, it would bring the Devils and their fans no pleasure to see Rantanen play for the Blueshirts.
On a recent episode of Sportsnet’s Real Kyper & Bourne, NHL insider for TVA Sports, Renaud Lavoie, suggested that the Avalanche are of the mindset that if they can’t ink Rantanen to a contract they find reasonable, they won’t lose him for nothing and trade him before free agency, or perhaps the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline.
In the same breath, Lavoie cited the Rangers as a trade partner, knowing Chris Drury is looking to make some big changes.
Here’s the clip of the conversation:
It’s hard to imagine a Colorado Avalanche team without Rantanen. In fact, Colorado colleague, Aarif Deen explains he’s not buying the Avalanche would move on from the Finnish forward.
“I don’t buy it,” Deen wrote in his latest for Colorado Hockey Now. “The Avalanche have time and are using it. I don’t think keeping Rantanen past the trade deadline without a new deal is going to scare them. The actual deadline is July 1.”
The Avalanche have played the waiting game before with their star players. They went down to the wire with captain Gabriel Landeskog, who inked an extension mere minutes before unrestricted free agency would open in the summer of 2021. Although the two sides played chicken, Landeskog explained the thought of leaving Colorado was never a reality, and Deen believes Rantanen is in the same place.
It’s always interesting to hear a team is prepared to trade a star player on an expiring contract. We’ve seen that kind of negotiating tactic backfire, ending up in divorce as opposed to marriage. For now, it’s wait and see, but the Devils are certainly crossing their fingers that the Avalanche and Rantanen end in marriage, instead of the Finnish forward heading across the Hudson.
One thing is for certain, these kinds of negotiating tactics certainly make Devils fans appreciate general manager Tom Fitzgerald getting ahead of things, such as inking Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier to long-term, bargain deals.
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