Josh Kroenke confirms he was involved in Mikko Rantanen trade

Colorado Avalanche governor Josh Kroenke held a press conference on Tuesday to introduce two new Denver Nuggets executives.

But in the course of that presser, Kroenke mentioned the Avalanche. They’re a team he doesn’t speak on a lot, leaving that mostly to team president Joe Sakic and GM Chris MacFarland.

What Kroenke offered up was a peek behind the scenes at the stunning Mikko Rantanen trade this past January. The Avalanche traded Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes before he was eventually moved to the Dallas Stars. Rantanen’s hat trick in Game 7 of Round 1 of the NHL playoffs ended Colorado’s season.

“Just thinking back to the last 12 months on the Avalanche side, I think that Joe and Chris did a phenomenal job navigating a difficult situation with Mikko Rantanen,” Josh Kroenke said.

The answer was part of a question about how the Nuggets are structured, as well as other KSE owned teams, when Kroenke spoke on Rantanen.

“Kevin (Demhoff), my dad (Stan Kroenke) and I were involved on the periphery of all those discussions and eventually you make a decision together and you move forward. I’ve seen it all in different sports and different ways,” Josh Kroenke said.

Trading a player of Rantanen’s caliber, a points machine and a Stanley Cup champion, probably should reach the level of ownership. So it’s good to hear it did.

It also makes you wonder how tense those contract negotiations got if ultimately the Avalanche’s top bosses signed off on moving arguably a top-10 player in the NHL.

Regardless, this wasn’t something we expected to learn at a Nuggets press conference. But we did, and it’s up to Avs fans to decide if it makes them feel better or worse about how everything went down.