Mikko Rantanen, who played parts of ten seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, is joining the Carolina Hurricanes, the team

The Carolina Hurricanes acquired forwards Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche and Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks in a three-team trade Friday night. In the deal, Carolina sent forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury,

The first major domino has fallen more than a month before the March 7 trade deadline, with Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall going to the Hurricanes and Martin Necas heading to the Avalanche in a three-team blockbuster,

Veteran forward Taylor Hall has joined his seventh team last week, as he was included in the blockbuster three-team trade between the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes; he was traded from Chicago to Carolina, and it's a move that he approves of.

The Hawks will receive a third-round draft pick, but the Hurricanes' acquisition of Mikko Rantanen from the Avalanche is the far bigger part of the trade Friday, per reports.

In the weeks leading up to his trade to Carolina, Taylor Hall repeatedly said he wanted to stay in Chicago, that he wanted to be a part of what the Blackhawks were building, that he wanted to settle down in one city in the twilight of his peripatetic career.

Hall broke down the timeline of the blockbuster trade from his perspective Thursday. He claimed he's "definitely a better player than the amount I was playing" during his final weeks in Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks received their third-round pick back from the Hurricanes, didn't retain any of Hall's $6 million cap hit, but did retain $4.625 million of Mikko Rantanen's contract. According to Elliotte Friedman,