Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen out “week to week” with lower-body injury

When Mikko Rantanen left the game against the St. Louis Blues Monday night, Colorado Avalanche fans feared the worst. Early in the second period, the star winger seemed to catch a rut in the ice and his leg turned awkwardly under him. Rantanen was helped to the dressing room while being unable to put much weight on his left leg.

The way his foot twisted, there was speculation that Rantanen could have suffered anything from a high-ankle sprain to a town ACL. He hand an MRI during the team’s day off on Tuesday.

While the team isn’t volunteering much information, head coach Jared Bednar said he expects Rantanen to be “week-to-week” but that he doesn’t expect the 22-year old to be out more than a month. Bednar also called the diagnosis “best case scenario” given the team’s fears immediately following the injury.

The Avalanche won’t make public the results but given the timeline and reaction from his coach, it seems as though Rantanen’s MRI showed no structural damage to his leg.

Rantanen has already begun treatment and he will be reevaluated by team doctors at some point next week. Until then, we are likely to see either Andre Burakovsky or Joonas Donskoi take his spot on the top line next to Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog.

After an eye-opening 2018-19 season and a huge $55m contract extension this summer, Rantanen was off to a great start. The Finnish forward has five goals 11 points in eight games to open the season.