Mikko Rantanen Played Through a Torn MCL for Two Months and Nobody Saw It Coming

Here's the kicker: Rantanen was broken the entire second half of the Stars' season and they had no idea how badly it would affect their playoff run. The Dallas forward tore his MCL while playing for Finland at the Olympics in February, missed 15 games, and then limped back for the final stretch like nothing happened. Spoiler alert: something was very wrong.

The Injury That Changed Everything

Rantanen took the hit during the Olympics when Finland won bronze, but the damage was done. When he returned for the last 10 games of the regular season, he wasn't himself. One goal and four assists. That's it. Not the guy who put up 21 goals and 51 assists in 54 games before the injury. Then in the playoffs, when Dallas needed him most against Minnesota in the first round, he managed one goal and six assists before the Stars lost in six games.

Stars GM Jim Nill didn't mince words about it: "Did he come back too soon? Not too soon, but would have been nice to have one or two more weeks to really settle in. He never really got going again."

A Season Derailed by Bad Luck

Here's the brutal part: Rantanen wasn't even the worst injury problem Dallas faced. Top-line center Roope Hintz missed the first four games after the Olympics because of illness, then tore his left hamstring in two places on March 6. He's been done since.

Nill said it straight up: "We never had one game where we had a full lineup this whole season and the playoffs. Hard to believe, I've never seen that before." That's the season Dallas had. The team that brought Rantanen in on a $96 million, eight-year extension last season, the same guy who went absolutely nuclear in the playoffs last year with nine goals and 13 assists in 18 games, just couldn't stay healthy when it mattered.

The good news: Rantanen won't need surgery. The bad news: Dallas is headed into an offseason full of uncertainty with key players' futures up in the air and a first-round exit that never should have happened if their roster had actually been whole.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.