Report: Stars’ Rantanen to ‘miss some time’ with injury suffered at Olympics

The Winter Olympics are in the rear view mirror, and in two days, the NHL regular season will resume on Wednesday night with an eight-game slate.

For the Dallas Stars, the return comes with some uncertainty surrounding star forward Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen was a key player for Team Finland throughout the tournament at the Olympics, but he was held out of the team’s win in the bronze medal game over Team Slovakia with a lower-body injury.

On the latest episode of his 32 Thoughts Podcast, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman reported that Rantanen will “miss some time” as the Stars resume their regular season schedule.

“Rantanen got hurt here,” Friedman said. “I think he’s going to miss some time. I don’t believe it’s season ending, but I think he’s going to miss some time.”

When the Olympic break hit, the Stars were on a six-game winning streak as they looked to gain ground on the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche in a tightly-packed Central Division race.

In his first full season in Dallas after joining the team in a trade with Carolina at last year’s deadline, Rantanen has continued to cement himself as one of the league’s elite offensive forces. The 29-year-old has 20 goals and 49 assists for 69 points in 54 games played, good enough to lead the team in assists and points.

Those top three teams in the Central are among the five or six best in the entire league, and only one of them will be able to advance to the Western Conference final. At 34-14-9, the Stars currently sit one point behind the Wild for second in the division and six points behind the Avalanche for the top spot.

Dallas is one of the 16 teams that will be in action when the season resumes on Wednesday night. They host Seattle before being idle Thursday and Friday. They’ll then close out their schedule for the week by hosting Nashville on Saturday.