Carolina, Colorado, and Chicago trade multiple star players in Friday night blockbuster

The landscape of the Eastern and Western Conference playoff races just changed dramatically.

In a stunning move, the Carolina Hurricanes traded not just for Taylor Hall, which would have been a notable move on its own, but also megastar winger Mikko Rantanen, with half his salary being retained, in a three-team deal with Chicago and Colorado. To do so, the Hurricanes shipped out their own star wing, Martin Necas, youngish center Jack Drury, as well as a package of picks, including a 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth.

Chicago's 2025 third-rounder, is going back to the Blackhawks for Hall, who is now off their books entirely, and the entire 50-percent Rantanen cap retention.

To put it plainly, Rantanen is one of the best players not only at his position, but any. And thus, in the "you win the trade if you get the best player in it" math, Carolina wins this trade by a mile.

Rantanen currently has 25-39—64 in just 49 games, good for sixth in the league, and has cleared 100 points in each of the last two seasons. Since his second full season in the league, back in 2017-18, only seven players have more total points (643, two behind Mitch Marner in 13 fewer games) or points per game (1.2, tied with Auston Matthews), and just eight have more goals (267, tied with Kyle Connor, who played 25 more games).

Yes, he played with two of the most skilled players on the planet in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, but he was a key cog for a team that won a Stanley Cup two years ago and posted 100-plays points in each of the last three seasons. Carolina got the best player in the trade, and even with the acknowledgement that Necas is very good, Rantanen is a monster upgrade, the kind that doesn't come along very often. The chemistry he may be able to rekindle with countryman Sebastian Aho from their international play is beyond tantalizing. (The Four Nations tournament is just weeks away…)

The fact that Necas, who just turned 26 last week, was part of the deal may seem surprising — he leads the team in points (55) and is third in goals (16) through 49 games, and currently sits 12th league-wide in total points — but this move comes after a summer in which his name was frequently mentioned in trade rumors and ended up signing an extension for just two years instead of the standard for players of his age and caliber, which is closer to the max term of eight seasons. It's worth noting, too, that you gotta give to get, and Colorado might have been just as happy to keep Rantanen had the offer from Carolina not been so enticing; with Rantanen potentially seeking a MacKinnon-sized deal for next season and beyond, the notably lower cost (just $6.5 million against the cap) and extra year of locked-in employment Necas provides a lot of cost certainty for a team that's gotta be sweating every dollar, even with the cap likely to go up significantly.

A quick fun fact on that improved Necas production, though: He's already played 15 more minutes on the power play than he did all of last season, so this looks at least a little bit like a long-planned pump-and-dump move for the Hurricanes before this rug pull.

Drury hasn't really been a superstar for Carolina, but is at times a useful defense-first bottom-six guy. Colorado, as it so often does with reclamation projects, might be able to squeeze a little more water from that stone.

Hall, for the record, is currently injured.

In making the trade for one of the best players on the planet and getting out from under a problem deal, Carolina simultaneously takes on serious risk. Rantanen is a pending unrestricted free agent and the fact that a team like Colorado, which has serious Stanley Cup aspirations once again, was willing to trade him hints at the potential for him to want a mega-deal, the kind that the Avs' host of other star players made financially unfeasible. Or, potentially more concerning for the Hurricanes, he might want to test the open market regardless of what his past and now current employers might have offered.

For the Avalanche, the downgrade isn't ideal but it's something they can likely live with if for no other reason than you can put Necas with MacKinnon and Makar on the power play and juice his numbers to a potentially greater extent than Carolina did this season. It also kicks the can on needing an extension for their top winger down the road a year, when the cap could be up around nine figures.

There are already reports (who knows how credible) that Colorado might not be done after freeing up a little bit of money. No doubt the Hurricanes were interested in one of the on-the-block Canucks forwards — reports say Vancouver asked about Necas in a potential JT Miller deal but were rebuffed — but barring major surgery for the other parts of their roster, this is probably their one big deal. Frankly, you'd probably rather have Rantanen, even with all this contract uncertainty, than Miller locked in for years to come at a relatively affordable number.

And as far as Chicago goes, well, they got their own third-round pick back and saved some money, so that's nice for them.

But the broader implications on the playoff races and alignment of who is or isn't a real Cup contender lie solely with Colorado and Carolina. If you thought the Metropolitan and Central Division races were wild before, you haven't seen anything yet.