Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen led them to the playoffs on a torn knee. As his season came to a close, general manager Jim Nill revealed that Rantanen battled a torn MCL towards the latter part of the season.

“Major injury. Came back, he's very competitive,” said Nill about Rantanen Thursday, May 7 during his season-ending availability. “Did he come back too soon? Not too soon, but would have been nice to have one or two more weeks to really settle in. He never really got going again.”

Rantanen was part of the Olympic bronze-medal-winning Team Finland in February when he suffered the injury. Following his return from the 2026 Winter Olympics, he missed 15 games before making a comeback for the final 10 games of the regular season.

During that stretch of the Stars campaign in the Western Conference, beginning in March, Rantanen managed to score two goals and provide six assists. After that, in a first-round playoff series loss to the Minnesota Wild in six games, he accumulated seven points on one goal and six assists.

Nill also confirmed that Rantanen won’t need surgery for the torn MCL this summer and is expected to start next season fully healthy.

Notably, throughout the season, Rantanen played 64 games, scoring 22 goals and providing 55 assists for 77 points. While these numbers fall below his previous totals of more than 100 points in a season twice, his point-per-game this campaign shows how good he still was.

Meanwhile, Stars closes the season with a heavy injured reserve.

Stars Dealt With Injuries to Other Key Players on the Roster During the Season

The Stars reached 112 points in the regular season, the third-best record in the NHL, which raised the Stanley Cup expectations. But they ultimately had to make the first-round playoff exit against Minnesota after a 5-2 loss.

“We never had one game where we had a full lineup this whole season and the playoffs,” Stars GM talked about the injury crisis. “I’ve never seen that before.”

Tyler Seguin ended his season early after suffering an ACL injury last December. Roope Hintz, the Stars’ top-line center, initially missed four games due to illness after returning from the 2026 Winter Olympics. But he suffered a torn left hamstring in his return game on March 6.

Radek Faksa, who primarily plays as a third-line center, got concussed at the Olympics and then had his foot sliced by a stake before returning two games prior to the playoffs.

The priority for the Dallas Stars next season will be getting their injured players back on the ice and performing at their best without much delay.

Read more at NHL Fan Central.

Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar