Report: Maple Leafs were among shortlist of teams Mikko Rantanen was willing to be traded, extended

The Toronto Maple Leafs were reportedly one of four teams that Mikko Rantanen was willing to be traded and sign with, via David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.

Pagnotta was alongside Nick Alberga to host Wednesday’s edition of Leafs Morning Take where he broke down how things went with Rantanen, leading up to his trade to the Dallas Stars on Friday, and reported that the Leafs were on the short list of teams that Rantanen was keen on joining, if a trade could be worked out.

“There was a four-team preferred list. There were four teams that, ‘Yeah, these are our top four teams that we’d like to go to,'” he said. “And my understanding is obviously Dallas, Florida, Toronto, and Edmonton. Those were the four preferred team list. And I can confirm with a million percent certainty that he was willing to sign in Toronto and he was willing to sign in Edmonton.”

Pagnotta added that other teams were in the mix trying to acquire his services in the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings. However, Rantanen did not prefer to sign with them so talks with other teams outside of the top four did not progress very far. Florida was been busy making moves ahead of the deadline and did not have enough to make the trade work so it settled on acquiring Brad Marchand, while the Oilers never had the assets to make a trade work so talks never fully evolved.

That left the Leafs and Stars as the two frontrunners to acquire his services and there was a chance that Toronto would win the bid. The Carolina Hurricanes originally asked about acquiring Mitch Marner in exchange for Rantanen and when GM Brad Treliving approached Marner’s camp about the option, he decided to waive his no-move clause, citing his desire to remain with the Leafs.

“After the Marner situation was cleared, Carolina wanted Matthew Knies in a package.  And every sense I got with Toronto didn’t want to do that,” Pagnotta said. “ So they shifted to the two prospects, the two firsts, and I believe there was something else in there. They liked Dallas’s offer. They wanted a proven guy at the NHL level in Logan Stankoven, and they went with that one.”

Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reported that the two prospects that the Leafs offered in the third proposal were Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten. While both players may have been enough value to get the deal done, neither are established in the NHL the way Stankoven is and that in combination with Carolina’s preference to move Rantanen out west would explain why the Stars bid won out in the end.

Treliving would shift his focus to acquiring Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo, the latter of whom cost the Leafs a package that included Minten. The subsequent that Rantanen signed with Dallas (eight years, $12 million AAV) should provide a baseline for the contract that Marner will sign after this season, whether that be in Toronto or elsewhere.

This would explain why Marner told reporters on Saturday that he had a feeling something might happen in regards to being asked to waive his no-movement clause. It is also worth mentioning that Treliving told reporters after practice on Sunday that they are behind Marner all the way though their current focus is on the season.

If the Leafs agreed to the trade that included Knies or had the Hurricanes accepted the Cowan/Minten proposal, Marner’s days in Toronto likely would have been numbered as a result as there would have been no way to fit his contract on the books. While it would have made for an interesting dynamic had this come to fruition, it will ultimately remain a mystery because no one will know exactly how it would have played out.

Either way, the Leafs exit the deadline with Marner, Knies, and Cowan still on the books. The latter will likely be in the mix to crack the roster for next season while the former two still need contracts sorted out although Knies assured fans that he expects him, Marner, and John Tavares to get something done.