STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – Nathan MacKinnon was all smiles as he arrived for the 2025 IIHF men’s World Championship.
That said, he had to answer some tough questions in front of a sea of reporters about the Colorado Avalanche’s first-round loss and his former teammate, Mikko Rantanen.
One of the wide range of topics discussed after Team Canada’s Friday practice was Rantanen, who scored a third-period hat trick to propel the Dallas Stars to eliminate the Avalanche in what felt like a revenge game against the team that traded him.
With the Avalanche and Rantanen struggling to agree on a new contract extension early in the season, the team traded the superstar right winger to the Carolina Hurricanes, which then moved him to the Stars at the trade deadline.
The Stars ultimately gave Rantanen an eight-year, $96-million contract extension, and the rest is history. He leads the NHL with eight goals and 15 points in eight playoff games.
MacKinnon attempted to dodge a question about whether the Avalanche made a mistake trading Rantanen, but he did share some feelings about his former teammate.
“It’s tough to say,” MacKinnon said. “I can’t really give you an answer. I don’t know. Obviously, I’d love to have him on the team, but he’s not on the team, so I don’t really know what to say. Definitely miss him. Obviously, he scored a hat trick on us in Game 7. Amazing player and great friend as well.”
MacKinnon and Rantanen played in Colorado with each other since the 2015-16 season and shared many valuable memories, including winning a Stanley Cup in 2022.
All of the feelings associated with those memories don’t go away.
While the loss of getting eliminated still stings, MacKinnon had nothing but positive things to say about Rantanen.
“He’s an amazing player,” MacKinnon said. “As you know, he did so much for our team, so no surprise that he’s dominating. Yeah, he’s been playing great.”
There was also a quick discussion about how the Avalanche lost against the Stars in Game 7 of the first round.
MacKinnon made sure to give Dallas its flowers, not before mentioning the two late third-period penalties that allowed the Stars to seize momentum of the game and win.
“They just don’t go away,” MacKinnon said. “I thought, overall, we had a good series. We played well enough to win. Obviously up 2-0 with 10 minutes left. I think some of those penalties were, I don’t know if those are playoff Game 7 penalties, but it is what it is. I feel like our team is close. You know, it’s a first-round loss, but it’s a pretty good team we played.”
It’s clear this Avalanche and Stars rivalry is not going anywhere. As for MacKinnon, he still has a different championship to win. Team Canada gets going against Slovakia at 6:20 a.m. ET on Saturday at the World Championship.
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