PITTSBURGH — Mikko Rantanen was 12 years old when he saw Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang win the Stanley Cup together for the first time.
Nathan MacKinnon’s admiration for Crosby is well documented, but Rantanen was a big fan of No. 87 growing up as well. Cale Makar, like MacKinnon, has had the chance to skate with Crosby and Letang in the offseason.
Colorado’s trio of world-class players has an immense amount of respect for Pittsburgh’s ‘Big Three,’ which has now been together for 18 years — the longest continuous stretch for three teammates on any major North American professional sports team.
“It’s remarkable,” Rantanen said. “I remember growing up and watching those guys win the first Cup in 2009. So 18 years, that’s a long time. And to be as good as they’ve been, it’s pretty crazy, to be honest. I’m not surprised it’s the first time ever. They’re all top-tier players, which makes it even more special.”
Those six players, who could all be together in the Hockey Hall of Fame someday, were on the ice Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. They were the three players sporting a letter on their sweaters for each team.
The old guys showed why they’re so revered by younger players around the league. Pittsburgh has scuffled early in this season, while Colorado steamrolled to a 6-0 start. Then the Penguins dialed up a vintage two-way performance, besting the Avalanche 4-0, with Crosby providing the final goal to snap Colorado’s NHL-record string of 15 straight regular-season road victories.
Crosby, Malkin and Letang have won three championships together and reached the Cup Final a fourth time. Crosby and Malkin have won Hart trophies and Conn Smythe trophies. All three have come back from potentially devastating injuries and ailments to become all-time greats in the sport.
Their legacy, both in the NHL and the Steel City, has long been secure.
“After wining Cups and spending so much time together, going through the ups and downs of a career, I think it’s special that we’re still together,” Letang said. “We’re still searching for the same thing — trying to win another Cup. It’s two special guys. I couldn’t have asked for better personalities or guys on and off the ice to spend my entire career with.”
Pittsburgh’s “Big Three” is a gold standard, and have created something that Colorado’s elite trio can aspire to match someday. To be clear, the longevity aspect of the Penguins’ trio might be a Roberto Clemente Bridge too far for the Colorado guys to track down.
MacKinnon and Rantanen are in their eighth full season together, though it could be stretched to nine if we include the latter’s nine-game trial with the big club in 2015-16. Makar is in his fifth full season, though he did join the Avs for 10 games in the 2019 playoffs, so it could technically be six.
That’s still 12 more years to go after this one, which would stretch until MacKinnon is 40 years old and Rantanen is 39. There’s also the small matter that the Pittsburgh trio is all under contract through at least 2025 and none of them appear close to being done, so their record will continue to grow.
“It would be amazing to even come close to that,” Rantanen said. “We support each other really well. Obviously we have a good team. Every guy here helps us too, keep going in the right direction. I think we demand a lot from each other. Nate demands a lot from me and Cale. And we demand a lot from him. That drives all of us to be better. We just don’t want to get too happy or settled if we play well.”
Naturally, an enterprising hockey writer is going to make the comparison between the two trios. And anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes around MacKinnon would know he’s not going to be willing to go there.
“I don’t think so,” MacKinnon said. “I don’t think we’ve accomplished enough. Well, Cale is obviously the best, but I don’t think me and Mikko are as good as Sid and Geno, especially in their prime, so not really.”
The key here is that Colorado’s trio hasn’t accomplished enough … yet. The archetypes are all similar.
MacKinnon has been, at his peak, considered one of the two best centers in the world. And while Crosby and Co. won their first title well before he claimed his first one, they didn’t win rings two and three until “Sid the Kid” was 28 and 29 years old (MacKinnon is 28 right now).
Rantanen is actually an incredibly similar player to Malkin, in size, skill and playing style. If someone polled 20 NHL players and asked them which player from the younger generation is most like Malkin, Rantanen is almost certainly the best answer, even if one is a center who sometimes moonlights on the wing, and other is the reverse of that.
“It’s all about the mindset,” Letang said. “Whatever you want to accomplish, that’s going to be all up to them. But I think they’ve got something going that is pretty special. Nate and Cale are tremendous players, like they’re on the highlight reels every night. And Mikko is an amazing player, too.
“Yeah, there are some similar things there. It seems like they’re all guys who want to stay in one place and win.”
Keeping the three players together could be a challenge for the Avs, but teams that have stars of that caliber always do everything in their power to retain them. MacKinnon is signed through 2031, but the other two do have important contract negotiations on the horizon.
Rantanen can be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026. Makar can be a UFA the following year. Given the success they could have together, it will be a massive upset if any of them aren’t on the team for opening night in 2027 or into the 2030s.
“Yeah, I hope so,” Makar said. “There’s a lot of things you have to take into account. For that to happen, we have to find success year in and year out. I don’t want to look that far ahead obviously, but hopefully the more success we accumulate, the more trust we’ll build.”
It wasn’t always a sure thing for the Penguins’ trio. Malkin had to be OK with Crosby’s place as the face of not only the team, but the league when they were younger. All three of them, while handsomely compensated, have made less money together than they would have apart.
Even as recently as the summer of 2022, there was a chance that Malkin and Letang both could have left as free agents.
“When you start your career, obviously you want to win, but more and more you establish in the dressing room like what do you want bring every single day?” Letang said. “As the years go by, you always bring it and you set a standard in the room. We didn’t miss the playoffs until last year, so I think we all want the same thing.
“We want to win and we want to create something special. I think that’s what brings us together.”
That all sounds pretty familiar for anyone who has followed the Avs’ trio of stars as they build their own legacy.
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.
