Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour suggested Monday that the organization should have been certain Mikko Rantanen was willing to sign long term before making a trade to acquire him from the Colorado Avalanche in January.
"Mikko was the only one that I've been associated with that said, 'This is not for me,' and I think there's other circumstances on that. ... I appreciate that he let us know that," Brind'Amour told Adam Gold of 99.9 The Fan. "We probably should have known that before we made the deal. Maybe that changes how we go about things."
The Hurricanes traded Rantanen to the Dallas Stars at last week's deadline following a 13-game stint with the club. Rantanen reportedly rejected an eight-year contract with Carolina worth more than $100 million. He inked a max-term, $96-million deal with the Stars after the trade.
Brind'Amour said Rantanen told the Hurricanes he was only willing to sign his next contract with four teams. The 28-year-old was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent before locking in with Dallas.
"There's not been one guy that has left here 'cause they didn't like it here. That was except for Mikko," Brind'Amour said. "And he didn't not like it. When he showed up he said, 'There's four teams I'll go play for, but you're not one of them.' There's 28 other teams he wasn't going to. The better question is, should we have known that before we signed him or attempted to sign him."
The Hurricanes have a history of losing players to free agency. The club acquired star winger Jake Guentzel before last year's deadline but was unable to extend him despite his success in Raleigh.
"Guentzel was the totally opposite thing," Brind'Amour said. "If we offered him the contract we offered him at the end, he's here. But we didn't, for whatever reason. That's a different conversation. And all the other guys that walked out of here at free agency is because they got paid a lot more money than we were offering. They all wanted to stay."
Rantanen managed six points in his brief tenure with the Hurricanes. He's scored two goals and added an assist in two appearances with the Stars.
