“Rantanen deal was not the biggest thing on the table in the last 48 hours!”

On Friday evening, a blockbuster trade took place as the Carolina Hurricanes made a major move to bolster their forwards group. The Canes are acquiring right winger Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche, along with veteran forward Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks. The three-team trade has been unfolding, with the Avalanche will receive centres Martin Necas and Jack Drury, and the Blackhawks will get a third-round pick and retain 50 per cent of Rantanen’s $9.25M cap hit.

However, insider Frank Seravalli reports that this massive Rantanen-Hall-Necas deal isn’t “the biggest thing on the table in the last 48 hours”. While he claims that an impeccable source has told him that something much bigger had been on the table, Seravalli does not name any players at this time.

One player or players that could have been involved in a bigger deal could be Vancouver Canucks’ J.T. Miller or Elias Pettersson.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed last weekend that a transaction almost took place but fell apart before Miller was in the lineup for Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, which would have apparently sent the forward to the New York Rangers. Forward Filip Chytil, defenseman Ryan Lindgren, and a first-round pick were reportedly part of the package that Rangers general manager Chris Drury had offered Vancouver before the trade was called off.

The Hurricanes had been mentioned more than once as an interested party in the Miller sweepstakes, and had their eyes on Pettersson last season, but might have dropped the idea and turned to Rantanen and Hall in a monster trade they could not pass up.

As for the Avalanche, they have shed a ton of salary in moving Rantanen without retaining a penny and could be making more moves in the upcoming days.

The Avs are reportedly interested in landing Brock Nelson of the New York Islanders and now have the room for him.

Stay tuned.