Original Six Team Confident in Landing Superstar Mikko Rantanen
The Chicago Blackhawks will be armed with plenty of salary cap space this off-season, and it appears as though they're confident in landing Mikko Rantanen if he hits the open market.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for Mikko Rantanen, as the star forward is now settled in Carolina and ready to make this team a Stanley Cup contender in a loaded Eastern Conference.
However, his run with the Hurricanes could be short lived, as he will become an unrestricted free agent this summer unless something drastically changes in the near future, with the team reportedly pushing hard to get a deal done.
If that doesn't happen and Rantanen ultimately does make it to free agency however, there's one team that will be looming large, with the Chicago Blackhawks reportedly confident they can land Rantanen, according to The Athletic.
This summer, the team are reportedly set to have around $27 million in salary cap space, and that's before the reported rise that may be coming, and with the team having the ability to offer Rantanen around the $14 million mark, something that not many teams can, it's easy to see why they're confident.
With Connor Bedard down the middle, the Blackhawks have desperately been looking for a star winger alongside him, and with their 2024 signings of Tuevo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi not panning out as they hoped, expect them to swing big here.
In the case of Rantanen and even Mitch Marner, their current teams will be pushing hard to retain them on long-term deals, but if either hit the open market, expect Kyle Davidson to be the name pursuing either one of them most strongly, with Rantanen the top name on their free agency dream list.
