As we creep up on the NHL trade deadline on March 7 more than a few star players are looking to the future for lucrative contract extensions or lest they become unrestricted free agents.

What often happens if they don't sign new deals is they get traded. A superstar who matches that description is Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen.

Rantanen put up more than 100 points in each of the past two seasons and he's sixth in the league in scoring this season and trails his teammate Nathan MacKinnon as the league leader. He's an elite scorer and a premier power play threat in the same vein as Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl. He's going to get paid by someone and whether that's the Avalanche or someone else may depend on how negotiations go up until the deadline.

Will he be traded? It depends on who you ask. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports had Rantanen on his list of 25 players who could be traded by the deadline while Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff said salary negotiations will have a bit of a wide range to get something done. It's not an ideal place for any team to be in, much less the Avalanche who are very much in their Stanley Cup window right now.

If the two sides can't get something done and Colorado GM Chris MacFarland makes the call to trade him, we've picked out a few top candidates (out of all 31 other teams that would want him) that make sense to take on the Finnish superstar.

Chicago Blackhawks

One team that should be mentioned any time there is an elite superstar player in trade rumors is the Chicago Blackhawks. They have Connor Bedard, they have a screaming desire to get better, and they need to add high-end talent to better surround Bedard.

If Vancouver isn't going to trade Elias Pettersson for Chicago to get involved in trying to acquire, Mikko Rantanen should be next on the list. Putting him with Bedard would allow him to take massive steps forward and Rantanen would give them another elite offensive weapon.

Chicago has plenty of salary cap space to make use of and if Rantanen wants $14 million a year like Leon Draisaitl does, they can do that. The only catch here is that if Bedard evolves and indeed becomes the next Connor McDavid/Sidney Crosby-level star, then they'll have to pay him at least that much per year at some point. But that would be a problem for another day, wouldn't it?

Get Bedard an elite winger to pair with and start making plans on getting back to the playoffs.

Anaheim Ducks

This season hasn't seen the Anaheim Ducks take a step forward the way they were hoping and although that must be frustrating on some level for GM Pat Verbeek, growing pains had to be expected. With the number of young guys they've got in the lineup, they could stand to have an adult or two more to help push their anemic offense and allow their greener skilled forwards the chance to thrive.

That's where Mikko Rantanen comes in.

Mind you, they have a lot of veterans in Anaheim, just none of the caliber or Rantanen. They don't have a guy who is a single-handed power play weapon, nor do they have a player who's been able to score with volume.

The Ducks have two players in double figures in goals (Troy Terry and Frank Vatrano) and Rantanen's 63 points are 29 more than Terry's team-leading 34. That's nearly double! Anaheim has prospects to tantalize Colorado as well as other veterans who could help them come playoff time.

New York Islanders

When you think about what the New York Islanders need to better their roster, the biggest thing that stands out is high-end skill and Mikko Rantanen offers that up by the truckload.

Guys like Mat Barzal, Bo Horvat and Brock Nelson have done their best to help give the Isles more of a push offensively and some of their other contributing forwards have done that as well, albeit not quite as consistently, but there's an overall dearth of skill in the organization.

The Isles need a lot of things, especially high-end prospects, but if they're intent on competing for the playoffs and getting in and hoping Ilya Sorokin can get hot and take them on a deep run, they've got to be able to score more goals.

Grit and grind can take you so far, which the Isles demonstrated in their back-to-back appearances in the Eastern Conference Final/NHL semifinals, but they've got an older, slower team now and that's got to change. Rantanen can be the change the fans want to see on the Island.

Buffalo Sabres

We're including the Sabres in our talk for Mikko Rantanen because of a few reasons.

The Sabres have plenty of money to be able to spend if they want to go big to re-sign Rantanen. They have a desperate need for a veteran, established winger to help fill the net up, especially on the power play. They also have an established history of making a monster trade with the Avalanche after they traded Casey Mittelstadt for Bo Byram a year ago.

Buffalo has all the parts any team would want to make a deal, and it would just be a question of whether or not GM Kevyn Adams would be comfortable with doing so. They've got young players, prospects, and picks that they may not be overly attached to considering they needed to be winning more games already and the pressure is mounting to get back to the playoffs.

What might not make Colorado too excited to deal with Buffalo again is how Mittelstadt has slumped this year while Byram has played very well for the Sabres despite the team's overall struggles.

San Jose Sharks

The San Jose Sharks aren't quite in the same position Chicago is when it comes to feeling the need to surround Macklin Celebrini with elite talent to move them forward, but if you put Mikko Rantanen on the Sharks for the years to come next to him, wouldn't that grab your attention?

The Sharks are intriguingly doing their rebuild. We've seen Celebrini play outstanding already in his rookie season and the same goes for forward Will Smith and William Eklund has taken big strides this season in his growth. They'll have Quentin Musty to add to that group and defenseman Sam Dickinson will be there to push them from the backend shortly.

Chances are it'd take at least one of those other prospects to land Rantanen, but that's the price you pay for a guy who's scored 50-plus goals and had 100 points in a season a couple of times. San Jose doesn't have to, nor do they want to rush their rebuild, but adding Rantanen to what they're building surely would be exciting.

Boston Bruins

How desperate are the Boston Bruins? They're tight to the salary cap, they have the seventh-lowest-scoring offense in the league and they're in a brutally tight race to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. David Pastrňák can do a lot, but they're asking him and Brad Marchand to do almost all of it.

The Bruins have a few needs (defense, center) but adding a player of Mikko Rantanen's caliber would assuredly spark an offense that's been too quiet for too long. His ability to control the puck, create on the rush, and, yes, load up on the power play are all areas the Bruins need to improve.

In an ideal situation, Boston can duke it out for third in the Atlantic Division and stay out of the muck that the wild-card race is shaping up to become. That said, the fight for third in the division is getting crowded with Tampa Bay, Ottawa and Montréal all in the mix right now. Pastrnak is a difference maker, clearly, but adding Rantanen to the mix now and figuring out how to extend him after that would change things up in a big way.