It seems Carolina’s only focus right now is keeping Rantanen, whether as an extended player or worst case as a rental.

A Sportsnet report Saturday night indicated that Carolina Hurricanes right winger, Mikko Rantanen, was considering a massive contract extension offer from the team – specifically, a financial amount that was “into the nine digits”.

With the March 7 trade deadline less than two weeks away, Carolina has to decide whether to keep Rantanen for a Stanley Cup run risking losing him next summer if he doesn't extend his contract, or flip him for assets now to avoid that potential worst-case scenario as it happened to the franchise last summer.