Elliotte Friedman once again links Maple Leafs to 50-goal scorer

On the latest "32 Thoughts" episode, Friedman and co-host Kyle Bukauskas chatted about Rantanen's future, with Friedman speculating that the Finnish phenom could be on the move again:

"I think a lot of people are looking to see where this is going to go. I do believe there were some talks between the Hurricanes and Rantanen during the 4 Nations, and we'll see where this goes. I think if Rantanen is a pure rental, the lineup is going to be very long. The thing about Rantanen is, the Blackhawks ate 50% of his salary, so if you take a look at him in Carolina, his cap hit there with the Hurricanes is $4.625M. The Hurricanes have three retention spots. If they want to flip Rantanen, it's a little over $2.3M; anybody can do that. ... You're going to be able to find a way to handle that ... If he's available, there will be teams saying, 'We can't sign him, but we'll want to do him as a rental.' And I think it could be good teams. You've got to think teams like Vegas, Dallas Winnipeg, Florida, Tampa, Toronto. I wonder what you can get for him with that kind of competition."

Well, that's a twist we didn't really see coming. Toronto having the chance to acquire Rantanen for technically less money than Scott Laughton is ridiculous.

Friedman had linked Rantanen to Toronto recently, and the fact that the two keep getting brought up together is an exciting proposition.

Granted, the cost in terms of assets will be astronomical when it comes to getting him and having Carolina retain salary, but if it really can't see a future with him, it could look to scoop a king's ransom for him.

Toronto needs to give up Easton Cowan, all of its premium draft picks and potentially Ben Danford as well. It's going to be a full swap of future talent for immediate success, but this is Toronto's best window of opportunity.

No doubt Rantanen would make an impact for the Maple Leafs.

In 55 games, he has 26 goals and 40 assists while winning 53% of his face-offs, so the Leafs could use him down the middle, a very big issue for the team this season, as well.

But it's going to be hard to compete with teams like Winnipeg, Dallas and Florida because they hold better assets than the Leafs, and no stone will go unturned when it comes to finding pieces to acquire Rantanen.

Those are pieces Toronto doesn't necessarily have, and then there's the decision of keeping Mitch Marner or Rantanen, two men who have similar careers and are expected to receive very similar, albeit expensive contracts.

With the Maple Leafs in win-now mode and their window closing, it could be a good idea for them to go all-in.

But if they do and fail yet again, what can they possibly do next?