What’s going on with that Mikko Rantanen extension?

.

.

What’s going on with Miles Wood?It might be a while before we see Wood again. It sounds like that was a long-term injury that may take a while to rehab. I saw Wood after the game the other day, so he’s around, but I don’t expect to see him anytime soon. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s out until at least the trade deadline.Who do you think is goalie number 1 right now (obviously when both are healthy)? Is there an obvious choice for who will play the most in the playoffs?It’ll be Mackenzie Blackwood, barring something strange happening over the next few months. He’s the #1 and there’s not really any debate about it.What do the Avs even have left to trade away at the deadline?Not a whole lot. They love trading away second round picks, and they’ve got one left in this year’s draft. No first rounder this summer, but they still hold their first round picks in 2026 and 2027.The player I always come back to is 2023 first round pick, defenseman Mikhail Gulyayev. I’ve watched him a lot and think he’s going to be a real solid NHL defenseman, but he’s not coming to North America until the Fall of 2026 at the earliest. That doesn’t do the Avalanche a whole lot of good right now, so he could be someone they move to acquire immediate help. Since the Stanley Cup run, why does this team struggle to “get up” for less talented teams? If they had won half the losses to lesser opponents this year, they’d be in 1st place in the division. Your daily report on everything sports in Colorado – covering the Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and columns from Woody Paige and Paul Klee. I think the reality is that it’s a long season with 82 games and you aren’t going to be at your best every night. It’s human nature to gear down a little bit when you know you’re playing a weaker opponent, especially over the course of such a long season. These types of games happen every December and January when it feels like the season really starts to drag on.Rantanen is so important for the franchise, this season and beyond. Is he going to free agency, or is a deal still possible before then?A lot of Mikko Rantanen contract questions every week. Like, a lot, and I get why. It’s January and the deal still isn’t done. My understanding is that the two parties seemed close over the summer on a deal, but something changed. That something might have been the Leon Draisaitl contract in Edmonton, as the Oilers center will become the highest paid player in the league next season with a cap hit of $14 million. Draisaitl and Rantanen share the same agent.Mikko has not wanted to talk about the situation and that’s understandable. Agents do a lot of the heavy lifting in situations like this and he’s using whatever leverage he has at the moment. Chris MacFarland doesn’t speak publicly on contract negotiations as well.This is just my theory here, but there has been a lot of talk over the last year about goalies wanting to reset the market for what the top players at their position get paid. That kind of happened. Jeremy Swayman held out for big money and Igor Shesterkin got a massive contract recently from the Rangers. I wonder if wingers are thinking it’s their turn.17 players are set to have a cap hit of $10 million starting next season, and only four of them are wingers. The highest paid winger is Artemi Panarin at a little over $11.5 million, which Rantanen will almost certainly surpass, but by how much is the question. There could be some pressure on Rantanen (and Mitch Marner) to reset the market for wingers.It makes sense that Avalanche fans don’t want to see Rantanen make more than Nathan MacKinnon. You have to take into account that by the time Rantanen’s new contract kicks in, the salary cap will have gone up significantly since MacKinnon signed his deal. When MacKinnon’s deal started, the salary cap was $83.5 million. The expectation is that the cap next year will rise all the way to $92.5 million, and perhaps even higher. When that happens, contracts just start to get more expensive.That doesn’t mean the Avalanche will pay Rantanen more than MacKinnon, but you can bet that’s a big piece of this negotiation. I still believe it gets done, but we might not hear anything about it for a while. Keep in mind that Gabriel Landeskog was minutes away from hitting free agency before the Avalanche got that deal done prior to Colorado’s Cup season. Sometimes these things go down to the last second