Leading up to last Friday’s NHL trade deadline, the Dallas Stars already looked like a true Stanley Cup contender.

Already strong, they’d gotten in early on trade-deadline action by picking up Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci from San Jose at the beginning of February.

Last Friday, they improved their odds even more by landing Mikko Rantanen — by far the biggest fish in the pond. 

After earning his sixth consecutive win when the Stars beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 on Sunday at Rogers Arena, goalie Casey DeSmith said he’s excited by the Stars’ moves. 

“This is a great team that they've assembled here, and obviously we added a huge piece,” he said. “Even in the couple games since he's been here, he's made a huge impact. He's a superstar, and it's great to have him.”

On Monday, Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour revealed that Rantanen made it clear from the outset that Raleigh wasn’t for him — and speculated that the reason had more to do with family than it did with hockey.

“When he showed up, he said, ‘There’s four teams I’ll go play for, and you’re not one of them,” Brind’Amour told Adam Gold on Canes Corner.

Now that he’s back in the Central Division and has signed an eight-year extension that secures his long-term future, Rantanen is back to looking like the game-breaker that fans had come to know during his 10 years in Colorado. In his first two games with the Stars, he has two goals and an assist. 

And he didn’t log a point on what may have been his most important play against Vancouver. With the score tied 1-1 and with a Dallas power play just complete, coach Peter DeBoer threw Rantanen out with Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund on a power line with 32 seconds left in the second period.

Rantanen stepped into the faceoff circle and cleanly won an offensive-zone draw against Elias Pettersson. Then, he drew both Canucks defenders to him as he moved to the net front, leaving Mikael Granlund all alone for what proved to be the game-winner.

The entire play took six seconds.

The goal was Granlund’s first in his 13 games with the Stars. He also has eight assists.

“For me, I think there's been quite a bit of chances,” Granlund said. “It was good to get one in, finally.”

Much has been made of the ‘Finnish Mafia’ that has been assembled in Dallas, with Rantanen and Granlund joining Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz. 

The Mafia is currently down a couple of soldiers, with Heiskanen recovering from knee surgery and Hintz on the sidelines after taking a puck to the face in Edmonton on Saturday.

With a league-leading 16 points in eight games since the 4 Nations break, Hintz is a big loss. But Jason Robertson and newly extended Wyatt Johnston have heated up, and Matt Duchene has been delivering important minutes all year long.

On Sunday, Duchene earned first-star honors with a two-assist night.

“With the adversity we’ve had with injuries, if he doesn't play the way he's played all year, we wouldn't be in the spot we're in, in the standings,” said DeBoer.

And even though he’s not Finnish, Duchene is also a familiar face to the newcomers. He played with Rantanen in Colorado early in both their careers, then spent several years with Granlund in Nashville.

“We both know each other and how we play, and we've played on the same line for a lot of games,” Granlund said. “You know each other's tendencies so that that helps, for sure. It's been fun so far.”

NHL Trade Deadline 2025: Who Are The Post-Deadline Cup Contenders? With the NHL’s trade deadline now in the rearview mirror, we’re going to pinpoint below the league’s teams that are shaping up as true Stanley Cup contenders. In alphabetical order:

Last year, a first-place finish in the Western Conference earned the Stars a first-round date with the Vegas Golden Knights, the team that had ousted them one year earlier before going on to win the Stanley Cup. In the rematch, Dallas prevailed in a seven-game slugfest. And if the current standings hold, this year’s first round won’t be any easier.

The Stars are on a collision course to meet Rantanen’s old team, the Colorado Avalanche, who have also undertaken massive roster renovations in hopes of adding another championship to their 2022 Cup win. 

Is it April yet?

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