Agent: Rantanen, team “not close”

The agent for unsigned Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen told a Canadian radio station that “we’re not close” in contract negotiations with the franchise.

Rantanen remains out of the country, according to an interview with Europe’s MTV Sports on Wednesday, and is training in Bern, Switzerland. The European report said the 22-year-old was in Norway last week and flew to Bern to meet fellow Finish restricted free agent Patrik Laine of the Winnipeg Jets.

“It’s where you get the best workout,” Rantanen told MTV Sports about SC Bern, the top team in the Swiss National League. “I’ll come to Finland after that. Let’s hope the deal goes ahead.”

He added: “This is the first time I’m not in camp. But you have to live with it. So far, I have adapted pretty well.”

In Canada, Sportsnet 650 spoke to Rantanen’s agent, Mike Liut, who also represents Laine.

“I’ll give you an update: We’re not close (in contract negotiations), how about that?,” Liut said on the radio show. “They are high-profile guys. There’s a guy in Calgary (Matthew Tkachuk) and a guy in Tampa (Brayden Point) I think are pretty high-profile as well. There is nothing that’s happened that we didn’t know was going to happen, and nothing has gone on that we didn’t anticipate. There’s term, there’s AAV, there’s structure, and clubs have to manage their cap. We have to represent our clients. We have our convictions, they have theirs. Generally, these things get done when people move.”

Liut said the NHL is now a 20-something league and restricted free agents coming out of their entry-level deals want to be paid like unrestricted free agents in their late 20s.

“When I played you made more money at the end of the career than you did in the prime of your career. Just the way it was. Now players are making their money when they can perform and when they get to 30ish they start to fall off the wagon, and injury, a down year and their value drops significantly,” Liut said in the radio interview.