- Stars GM Jim Nill said Mikko Rantanen tore his MCL at the 2026 Winter Olympics with Finland
- Rantanen came back too soon and played the rest of the regular season and playoffs through the injury
- Read below for the video of Dallas’s elimination, what Nill said, and what it means for Rantanen’s offseason
Mikko Rantanen carried the Stars through the playoffs on a torn knee.
Dallas general manager Jim Nill confirmed Thursday that the Finnish winger tore his MCL at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February and played through it for the rest of the season. Stars beat reporter Lia Assimakopoulos posted the news:
“I never really thought he was himself [after],” Nill said. He added that the team would have liked to give Rantanen another week or two before bringing him back. The good news for Dallas fans: no surgery is needed this summer.
Rantanen got hurt in the third period of Finland’s 3-2 semifinal loss to Canada and missed the bronze medal game. The Stars placed him on injured reserve when he returned home and listed the issue as a lower-body injury. He sat 15 games before returning March 28 and dressed in Dallas’s final 10 regular-season contests.
The numbers tell the story. Rantanen finished with 22 goals and 55 assists for 77 points in 64 games, well off the 105-point pace he hit with Colorado in 2022-23. He added one goal and six assists in six playoff games before the Stars were finished off by the Wild in the first round.
Nill also touched on Nils Lundkvist, who fractured his leg and ankle in the regular season, then took a skate to the face in the playoffs that left him with a deep laceration and a concussion:
Dallas finished the regular season with 112 points and the third-best record in the NHL. None of it mattered once Game 6 in St. Paul went sideways. Here is the video:
Video aside, a healthy Rantanen this fall would change the math on a Stars roster trying to reset after a brutal first-round exit. No surgery means no rehab clock. Training camp should be the next time we see him on the ice.
