A former Bruins player and a soon-to-be Bruins opponent were each part of a sizable three-team deal involving the Avalanche, Blackhawks and Hurricanes. As expected Taylor Hall is on the move again. Hall, who spent parts of three seasons as a Bruin is going from Chicago to Carolina.

Nathan MacKinnon was stunned. He used other words — shocked and sad were two — to describe the Colorado Avalanche trading Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night. The best way to describe how he looked about 18 hours after an “Earth-shifting hockey trade” though,

Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said trading Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes was a "tough business decision," calling the star winger a "superstar human being."

The Colorado Avalanche stunningly traded Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night, and he was reportedly blindsided.

The trade that saw the superstar dealt to Carolina sent shockwaves through the league and up and down the Colorado franchise.

In his most recent trade board for The Athletic, NHL insider Chris Johnston reported that former Bruins forward Ryan Donato is "starting to attract some attention on the trade market."

In the tightly bunched Eastern Conference, where playoff berths and positioning seemingly change by the hour, however, it’s hard not to look ahead.

Chris MacFarland pointed to Rantanen’s pending free agency and the club’s desire to get deeper after three years of being short in that department as reasons for the trade. The NHL’s salary cap ceiling, which is set at $88 million this year but is expected to rise — possibly significantly — in the next couple of seasons is also a factor.

The Carolina Hurricanes are wasting no time introducing their latest acquisition to the organization. After swinging a massive trade for superstar Mikko Rantane

Colorado loses Mikko Rantanen as part of a three-team deal on Friday, shipping him off to the Carolina Hurricanes who also got forward Taylor Hall from Chicago in the complicated trade.

According to one NHL insider, the Bruins remain as a "dark horse" for Vancouver Canucks top-line center J.T. Miller.