Colorado Avalanche: Top 5 Reasons to Sign Mikko Rantanen

The Colorado Avalanche have one big restricted free agent still pending, Mikko Rantanen. Here are some light-hearted reasons to sign him.

The Colorado Avalanche have a glaring piece of unfinished business. A certain Finnish winger is yet without a contract. At the time of writing, Mikko Rantanen was still a restricted free agent sans contract.

Now, as we reported in a previous post, Rantanen’s KHL Draft team traded his rights to the Ak Bars hockey club. The Ak Bars proceeded to offer Rantanen a one-year contract worth $ 4 million. The threat from the KHL isn’t significant.

The offer sheet from the Finnish floorball team, Nousiaisten Ryhti, is even less so:

Highlights of the offer include sending a player “without any brain activity” and another with a “quite cute daddy-belly” to the Avs in compensation. The team will pay Rantanen “one (1) stick…a baseball cap, three (3) time coupons to massage (teammate Olli is doing that),” an undefined number of socks, and lunch at Burger King–“IF we have money left after all bills.”

Cute.

Less cute is the fact that news came out today that Rantanen is set to practice hockey in Norway with his old coach from his TPS Liiga days, Miika Elomo. Now, it’s just practice, but I don’t like that. I’m not comfortable with that at all.

So, to take my mind off of worrying information like that, let’s look at some light-hearted reasons the Colorado Avalanche should sign Mikko Rantanen to a contract sooner rather than later.

1. Nathan MacKinnon Depends on Rantanen

Nathan MacKinnon is nothing without Mikko Rantanen.

Ok, our superstar center is an All Star and MVP all on his own. However, even the best players need their wingmen, and Rantanen is Nate’s favorite wingman. I don’t know how many of MacKinnon’s goals Mikko earned an assist on, but I’d guess it was a high percentage.

Let’s look at some examples. Here’s a beautiful one-timer on the power play:

Here’s a beautiful one-timer at even strength:

You’ve got to love the overtime Detroit Red Wings killer with Rantanen first carrying the puck into the zone before getting it to MacKinnon:

Oops, sorry former Av, Jonathan Bernier.

2. Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog are Best Friends

Captain Gabriel Landeskog took as liking to the Finnish winger when he broke into the NHL in the Dreadful 2016-17 Season of Despair. Naturally, that Lost Season wasn’t Rantanen’s fault. As a rookie he recorded 38 points — 20 goals and 18 assists. (By the way, he was third on the team for total points and first for goals scored.)

Anyway, our captain loves everyone, but he’s especially friends with Rantanen.

Look at this celly:

Speaking of friends…

3. Joonas Donskoi will Want a Finnish Friend

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The Colorado Avalanche signed winger Joonas Donskoi to a four-year contract worth $3.9 million annually as their first free agency signing of the summer.

Donskoi is from Raahe, Finland, an historic wooden town on the northern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. Rantanen is from Nousiainen, Finland, a municipality of Finland. It appears to be sparsely populated.

The two areas are separated by around seven hours of driving. Nonetheless, they’re in the same country. Plus, the two players will be able to speak to each other in their native language.

No matter how you look at it, being from the same country will be a boon to both Finnish players.

Fun fact: I attended a rock festival in Seinäjoki, Finland. That’s only around four hours from Nousiainen and three hours from Raahe.

4. Tyson Jost Loves Chirping Rantanen

Tyson Jost is friends with everyone on the team. But he also loves to chirp his teammates. Well, one of his favorite targets is Mikko Rantanen.

Watch him at the Colorado Avalanche’s Mile High Dreams Gala. He starts in by scoffing at Rantanen’s “All Star” status, comments on his shoes, and overall chirps his outfit. Oh, he also pointed out that Rantanen has no chest hair.

At the end of this video, Jost is talking about who has a bigger head, Landeskog or Rantanen. Jost chirps, “Mikko’s is more oddly-shaped…He’s just got a noggin on him.”

We can’t take away one of Jost’s favorite chirp recipients. (Also, Jost should have won the King of Content contest.)

5. We Want Mikko Rantanen!

Ultimately, we all want our All Star Finnish winger back. He’s such a stud. He led the team in goals in the Dud Season. He went from 38 points as a rookie (during the Dud Season) to 84 points (29 goals, 55 assists) the following season to 87 points (31 goals, 56 assists) last season.

Rantanen is only 22 years old and so probably not even striding into his prime yet. He’s a perfect complement to the top line and on the power play. The Colorado Avalanche are exponentially better with him in the lineup.

So, there’s really no reason not to throw a gigantic wad of Kroenke’s Wal-Mart money at Rantanen over the next several years and call it done. Yes, I know there’s a salary cap. I don’t care. Colorado has $15 million in cap space — they can give Mikko $10 million of that.

What do you think, Avs Nation? How badly do you want the Colorado Avalanche to just get Mikko Rantanen signed already?