Carolina Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said Saturday that his team has the desire and the financial flexibility to give newly acquired star winger Mikko Rantanen the massive contract he's seeking ahead of unrestricted free agency this offseason.

That is if he wants to remain with the Hurricanes.

Carolina stunned the NHL on Friday night by acquiring Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche in a three-way deal that also sent Chicago Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall to the Hurricanes. Rantanen is sixth in the NHL with 64 points in 49 games this season, including 25 goals. Since the 2021-22 season, he is fifth with 365 points in 286 games, including back-to-back 100-point seasons.

But Rantanen, 28, is an unrestricted free agent this summer, and his contract demands created a significant impasse with the Avalanche, with whom he has played for 10 seasons. The Hurricanes are hoping to meet Rantanen's asking price and convince him to commit long term.

"At this point, it's more of a recruiting pitch than a negotiation in my mind," Tulsky said Saturday.

Carolina has reached the playoffs in all six seasons of Rod Brind'Amour's head coaching tenure, including two trips to the Eastern Conference final. The team boasts a few players from Rantanen's native Finland, including friend and star center Sebastian Aho. Tulsky hopes the franchise's virtues -- and a contract to his liking -- will be enough to retain him.

"[Rantanen] is an incredible player. If he gets to free agency, I'm sure there will be teams that will pay him a lot of money, and so our job in the next weeks and months is to make it so he wants to be here," Tulsky said. "He has the right as a free agent to decide where to sign and it may not come down to the money for him. It may come down to where he wants to be. So our goal is to make him want to be here and then offer enough money that he doesn't have to think twice about it."

The Avalanche picked up Carolina forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury, as well as a second-round pick in this year's draft and a fourth-rounder in 2026. Chicago acquired its 2025 third-rounder from Carolina for Hall, the rights to Swedish forward Nils Juntorp and 50% retention on Rantanen's $9.25 million salary cap hit.

Colorado GM Chris MacFarland called the trade a "tough business decision." Rantanen was a popular star and clutch performer, amassing 101 points in 81 career playoff games. That included 25 points in 20 games when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Rantanen was seeking a contract similar to the eight-year extension Leon Draisaitl signed with the Edmonton Oilers in September. That deal carries an average annual value of $14 million. Rantanen and Draisaitl are represented by agent Andy Scott.

This is the second straight season the Hurricanes have traded for a star scoring winger with an expiring contract. Last year, they acquired Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel. The Hurricanes' efforts to re-sign him failed and he landed with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tulsky, who is in his first season as Hurricanes general manager, said the conditions are more favorable to keep Rantanen than they were for retaining Guentzel.

Last season, the Hurricanes didn't have the cap flexibility to sign Guentzel and the other players they wanted. This offseason, Tulsky estimates the team could have between $35 million to $40 million in cap space. The Hurricanes will be the only team that can give Rantanen an eight-year contract, per NHL CBA rules.

"Our team situation is totally different right now," Tulsky said. "We don't feel nearly as constrained."

The Avalanche and Hurricanes had been discussing Rantanen since last summer. Tulsky said the teams tabled "serious offers" for the winger during the past six to eight weeks. The Hurricanes were pushing hard to complete the trade in the past two weeks.

Those talks with Colorado were happening while Carolina was also discussing trades with other teams. Sources told ESPN that the Hurricanes and Vancouver Canucks had engaged in negotiations about forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.

Tulsky said in the past week there was a desire for all parties to "get their best offers on the table" so the Hurricanes could decide which player to pursue.

"Everybody had multiple offers. It was sort of time for everyone to figure out what they wanted to do and this deal got done," he said. "It was a complicated dance."