Colorado Avalanche: Evaluation and Areas of Improvement for Mikko Rantanen

While Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen enjoyed a career season, there’s always room for improvement until you’re hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Colorado Avalanche right wing Mikko Rantanen had a career year. He was second only to Nathan MacKinnon in scoring with 84 points. He definitely annihilated his rookie totals — nine more goals and an impressive 37 more assists for a total of 46 more points. Talk about not suffering a sophomore slump.

Throughout the season, Rantanen was a player who largely flew under the radar. His linemate, Nathan MacKinnon, garnered the majority of the attention. Rantanen, meanwhile, quietly enjoyed a seriously impressive second year.

As with MacKinnon, that seems like a cut-and-dry evaluation, right? That also gives us our advice for next season — keep it up, Mikko.

Well, it’s not so simple. And if he doesn’t take care, he can suffer a sophomore slump a year late. So, let’s do a more in-depth analysis of Mikko Rantanen’s season.

Evaluation of Mikko Rantanen’s 2017-18 Season

Goals: 29
Assists: 55
Shots: 178
Shooting percentage: 16.3%
Faceoff percentage: 51.28%
CF%: 50.7%
CF% Rel: 4.8

Mikko Rantanen had a good season — such a good season that he cost Nathan MacKinnon the Hart Trophy. (One rationale for the trophy going to Taylor Hall was that he didn’t have as good of support as MacKinnon.)

Well, Rantanen’s season may have been bad for Nate’s trophy aspirations, but it was good for the Colorado Avalanche (which would mean more to MacKinnon anyway). Mikko had 29 goals and 55 assists for a total of 84 points.

The big Finn — 6-foot-4, ~211 pounds — is also pretty durable. He missed just one game this season, February 6 against the San Jose Sharks after getting banged up against the Winnipeg Jets.

Just like every player not named Alex Ovechkin, Rantanen had scoring spurts and droughts. Of the latter, the two biggest lasted nine and 10 games. However, he continued to contribute offensively. Rantanten also had 19 multi-point games.

Unfortunately, the biggest slump for Rantanen came in the playoffs. He played all six games but didn’t score a single goal and recorded just four assists. There were rumors that he was playing through an injury, but he went on to represent Finland at the IIHF Worlds, recording five goals and six assists in eight games.

Areas of Improvement for Mikko Rantanen

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Well, the most obvious area for improvement would be for Rantanen to produce better in big games for the Colorado Avalanche. He’s done so for Finland — time to do it for the NHL team.

This year represented Rantanen’s first NHL playoff experience, though, and it was very different than he’s used to even in international competitions. The plan is for the Avalanche to make the playoffs again this year, and hopefully Rantanen accounts himself better.

The bigger issue is continuation. Rantanen didn’t suffer his expected sophomore slump. Instead, he made great strides moving forward. Hopefully, as with MacKinnon, that’s the real Mikko Rantanen. Hopefully there’s no regression in his game.

I’d say Rantanen needs to work on his skating to avoid falling down so much, but, truthfully, he seems to be making it work.

Next: Evaluating MacKinnon's Season

Mikko Rantanen is just 21 years old. His ceiling is high. We all hope he keeps making big strides for the Colorado Avalanche.