OG Fans - March 12, 2025

So I write this today, some 586 miles from Raleigh, out on the East End of Long Island, and while traveling I admittedly haven’t been able to watch the last two wins the Canes have put on the board, despite sitting in the living room I’d watch the occasional Hartford Whalers game on the local Connecticut NBC affiliate because Connecticut stations carried just as good (or even better) over the Long Island Sound than the New York City broadcasts.

I’m here because of family commitments, and oddly enough that coincides with my thoughts on the last few weeks of Canes hockey and a certain superstar from Finland that may have now eclipsed Jake Guentzel in “spit after you say his name” emotion with Canes fans. 

Oh Mikko, buddy.

But friends, I come here not to bury Rantanen, though I’m not here to praise him either. I’m here to attempt to really get into his mindset. See, you and I generally would find it difficult to put yourself in a position like a professional hockey player. Doing something that you’re insanely skilled at, making millions of dollars, it all seems like something that would be great wherever you played. You’re rich regardless, what’s $500,000 here or a tax break there? As long as you’re playing somewhere you’re comfortable and able to enjoy, it should be gravy. Yet for Mikko Rantanen, there was no gravy. Mikko Rantanen didn’t want to be here, and I have to say, I don’t blame him.

No, of course I don’t have anything against Raleigh, and while I’ve never had to play under Rod Brind’Amour, enough people have spoken so highly of him that I’m sure for a large percentage of hard-working players, that would be great – even a draw to playing here. No, I mean that I don’t blame him because Mikko Rantanen is a child of divorce.

Negotiation because Rantanen’s agent and the Colorado Avalanche, like so many high dollar prime player contract talks, became heated, but looking back, Rantanen surely wanted the Avs and his agent to stay together. Colorado drafted him, it was the only NHL franchise he had ever played for, and deep down, he thought he was staying there forever.

But the Avs and Mikko’s agent didn’t work out, and they broke up, and Mikko and his agent ended up with someone new – the Carolina Hurricanes. With that, Mikko Rantanen did what almost every child of divorce does – he took it out on his new, possible future stepdad.

The Hurricanes leaned completely into the stepdad role. They rolled out the red carpet for him. They gave him the big money contract he was supposedly asking for that his old Colorado dad wouldn’t give him. They let him hang out with his friends. I’m pretty sure Bill Burniston let him have ice cream for dinner. When he blew off contract negotiation because things were “moving so quickly” for someone who was “blindsided” by the trade, the Canes awkwardly laughed and took his word for it. The Canes, to their benefit, seemingly did everything right.

But Mikko Rantanen was never signing with the Canes, because kids of divorce never end up liking their new stepdad, no matter how hard they try, because they’re always going to look at that stepdad as the reason mom and dad aren’t together now. Mikko Rantanen wasn’t going to blame his agent for his divorce with the Avalanche (even though, you know, he was). But he was unhappy, and it showed on the ice and in the locker room, because teams are families, and it’s difficult to enter a new one, especially when you’ve told yourself already that you’re not going to like it.

Rantanen is going to be looked at as a hypocrite because all the initial reasons he gave for his reluctance to make a decision (blindsided by the trade, everything is too new, haven’t spent any time in the area) get thrown out when he signs an eight-year deal with the Dallas Stars, a team he’s never played for in a place he’s never lived. The Stars were fine though, because the Stars weren’t that stepdad that made him a child of divorce; they were anyone but him. Now, the Dallas Stars get to play bend-over-backwards stepdad for eight years, hoping to God that they’re getting Pittsburgh Jagr and not Washington Jagr.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes move on. I said two weeks ago that Rob Brind’Amour needed to do something to fix the trajectory of the Hurricanes, and while it may not have seemed obvious, realizing that someone like Rantanen just wasn’t going to work was a bold step. Brind’Amour’s on-ice strategy can often be up for discussion, but that familial bond – that tightness that gives teams that extra little oomph – makes the team function better on the ice. Just the same that Rantanen’s resistance to be part of the family caused his game to drop off, it affected the team as a whole as well. Two games after the trade, the Hurricanes have wins over a Winnipeg Jets team with the best record in hockey and a Tampa Bay Lightning team that had won 10 of it’s last 12, and both in convincing fashion.