Stars forward Mikko Rantanen finished season with significant injury suffered at the Winter Olympics

It is an annual tradition around the NHL that as teams get eliminated, we begin to learn what major injuries their players were attempting to play through. The Dallas Stars gave a massive update on Thursday regarding forward Mikko Rantanen, announcing that he finished the season while playing through a torn MCL that he suffered at the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

Mikko Rantanen tore his MCL at Winter Olympics

It was not a secret that Rantanen suffered a major injury while playing for Finland, but the full extent of it was never really revealed until Thursday.

The injury kept him out of the Dallas lineup for 10 games, and he was eventually activated from the IR in March.

After returning, he was clearly far from the player he has shown to be throughout his career, recording just two goals and eight total points in Dallas' final regular-season games down the stretch.

He followed that up with a goal and six assists (seven total points) in the Stars' six playoff games. They were eliminated in the first round by the Minnesota Wild, prematurely ending a season that began with Stanley Cup expectations.

His injury was one of several major ones that happened at the Olympics, including a knee injury to Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby that kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. 

The Stars acquired Rantanen at the 2025 NHL trade deadline from the Carolina Hurricanes and immediately signed him to a long-term contract extension. That trade and extension gave the Stars a major core player for the short and long term. Up until the injury at the Olympics, he had been everything the Stars had hoped for him to be.

"Major injury. Came back, he's very competitive," Stars general manager Jim Nill said Thursday, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). "Did he come back too soon? Not too soon, but would have been nice to have one or two more weeks to really settle in. He never really got going again."

Rantanen was not the only major injury the Stars were dealing with in the playoffs. Roope Hintz, another one of their top players, did not play after March 6 and was not available for the playoffs.

His absence, combined with Rantanen being far from 100% healthy, no doubt played a major role in their playoff exit. 

The Stars still boast one of the league's best rosters and should have Stanley Cup expectations again next season. One of the wild cards will be what happens with forward Jason Robertson. He is a restricted free agent this offseason, and there is a pretty significant gap in contract talks. If they cannot work out a long-term deal, a trade could be on the horizon. What happens with that situation, as well as their injury luck, will play a big role in determining what their ceiling can and will be.