Logan Stankoven fitting in fast with Hurricanes after being other side of NHL trade deadline blockbuster

RALEIGH, N.C.

Everyone wanted to see Logan Stankoven play in Vancouver.

His parents and sister made the fourhour drive from their home in Kamloops, British Columbia, and so did other family members and friends.

Along with the group from Kamloops, loved ones trekked from the broader Okanagan region and Vancouver Island.

In total, more than 400 people were planning to cheer on Stankoven and the Dallas Stars on March 9 against the Vancouver Canucks.

The trip had been in the works since the fall.

Advertisement There was one issue: When the time came, Stankoven wasnt on the Stars.

Two days earlier, on deadline day, Dallas had traded Stankoven, two first-round picks and two third-round picks to the Carolina Hurricanes in a blockbuster trade that landed them Mikko Rantanen.

Talk about bad timing.

We were quite shocked, says Wes Stankoven, Logans father.

Didnt see that coming at all.

Most of the group still wound up traveling to Vancouver, and before the Stars-Canucks game they packed into the Shark Club, a sports bar right next to Rogers Arena.

Some still wore Stars jerseys with Stankovens name and No.

11 on the back, and others had made a trip to Surrey to pick up Hurricanes gear.

Stankovens parents wore casual clothes.

Theyre superstitious and have found he plays better when they dont wear his jersey.

At the Shark Club, the group asked servers to turn the TVs to the Hurricanes game against the Winnipeg Jets.

They were 3,000 miles away, so it was far from an in-person experience, but it had to do.

The huge Stankoven support group still got to watch their favorite player, now wearing No.

22, in NHL action.

Stankoven scored a goal with the group watching, and the cheers in the Shark Club were so loud that it might as well have been a sports bar in Raleigh.

Stankoven had arrived with the Hurricanes, and his impact was immediate.

Hes a very natural fit, Carolina general manager Eric Tulsky says.

Hes very comfortable playing the way we want to play.

Rantanen, whom Carolina acquired in January from Colorado, is a premier player in the NHL.

He averaged 97.2 points per year over the past four seasons, won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche and twice finished in the top 10 of Hart Trophy voting.

He was a pending unrestricted free agent when he got to Carolina, and the Hurricanes tried to sign him to an extension.

When the star wing communicated he did not want to stay in Raleigh long-term, Tulsky flipped him to Dallas.

Advertisement Stankoven was the centerpiece of the return.

When we were talking about players who we thought might be available from them, he was the one who made everybody jump out of their seat and say, If we can get that guy, we need to, Tulsky says.

Stankoven, the Stars top prospect in colleague Scott Wheelers rankings before he aged out this year, is only 22 years old.

He does not have Rantanens 6-foot-4 size hes only 5-8 but brings competitiveness, forechecking and offensive creation.

Considering he still has another year to go before hitting restricted free agency, hes someone the Hurricanes believe can help them for years to come.

Hes more than just a future piece, though.

Stankoven is helping Carolina in the present , too.

He scored twice in the second period in the Hurricanes first-round Game 1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday: once from the slot off a Jordan Martinook pass, and once on the power play after a feed from Taylor Hall, whom Tulsky also acquired midseason.

Coach Rod BrindAmour has Stankoven on a line with Martinook and captain Jordan Staal, and the Hurricanes had nearly 60 percent of the expected goal share with them on the ice at five-on-five in the regular season.

Stankoven certainly enjoyed scoring against the Devils, punching the air and shouting with glee after his second goal, but he believes the line can create more offensive zone time in the future.

I love playing in the big games, he said in his postgame news conference.

Meaningful hockey.

Im motivated to try to contribute in any way possible.

Hes just getting warmed up, Staal added.

Stankoven has still been with Carolina for less than two months.

He first started hearing rumors he could go to the Hurricanes late on Thursday, March 6, the night before the deadline.

I didnt get a great sleep that night, and that day leading up to it (was) just a lot of chaos, he says.

Just wanted to get that day over with and find out where I was going to be.

Advertisement It wasnt a simple process.

The Stars had to negotiate an extension with Rantanen before the deal went through, leaving Stankoven in limbo as deadline day dragged on.

The young forward finally got a sense hed be on the move when the Stars told him not to go to the airport for the teams flight to Edmonton.

He met up with fellow youngsters Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley, who lived in the same apartment complex as him in Dallas, to say goodbye.

Then he went to the buildings gym and walked on the treadmill, trying to get his mind off the potential trade.

I was obviously in shock, he says.

(Dallas general manager) Jim Nill was pretty positive in his words there, saying, Some of these young guys are untouchables and are probably not going to get traded.

But its part of the business.

To build hopefully a championship team there, thats what he needed to do.

I think he was really disappointed at first, Wes Stankoven adds.

Fortunately for Logan, his transition to Carolina has gone smoothly.

The trade sent him to a perennial playoff team, and he heard from many of his new teammates shortly after the deal went down.

Seth Jarvis and Jesperi Kotkaniemi took him out to dinner in his first few nights in Raleigh.

On the ice, Stankoven started to feel more settled after his first few games.

His style matches the Hurricanes.

Getting power play opportunities also gave him a boost, his dad says.

(Carolina is) a tough team to play against because they come with all gas and they play really aggressive, Stankoven says.

I think thats kind of how I play.

It would be natural for a player in Stankovens place to feel added pressure, given a superstar went the other way.

Stankoven, though, recognizes his situation is different; this was only his rookie season where Rantanen was a pending unrestricted free agent.

He can, though, take the move as a vote of trust.

Advertisement Obviously the Canes organization believes in me (by) making that type of trade and wanting me for a high-quality player, he says.

So far, hes rewarded their faith, endearing himself to fans in the process.

Despite his smaller stature, he didnt hesitate to get in a scuffle with 6-4 bruiser Tom Wilson late in a game against Washington earlier this month.

The referees handed both players roughing minors and misconduct penalties, so Stankoven went to the dressing room, changed out of his uniform and watched the end of the Hurricanes win.

In normal circumstances, when the public address speaker announces someone as a star of the game, the player re-takes the ice still in uniform.

But when Stankoven got honored that night, he didnt hesitate to run out in shorts, tennis shoes and a hoodie.

He pumped up the crowd and high-fived someone in the front row as he walked back to the dressing room.

The Hurricanes fans roared.

They loved every second of it.

(Top photo: Grant Halverson / Getty Images).

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