BOSTON >> There have been some significant “what ifs” in the aftermath of the Avalanche’s run to the Stanley Cup in 2022, but there’s a new one near the top of the list.

What if Gabe Landeskog’s knee hadn’t failed him? What if Valeri Nichushkin’s personal demons hadn’t led to him leaving the team in the playoffs for two straight years? What if the salary cap hadn’t stagnated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic?

The new debate for Avs fans and hockey folks around the world: What if Colorado re-signed Mikko Rantanen?

It will likely take years to determine if the decision to move on was correct.

“It was an Earth-shifting hockey trade,” said Craig Button, a TSN analyst and former NHL general manager. “I don’t know if the Rocky Mountains moved, but it certainly shook a lot of snow free.”

The Avs traded Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas and Jack Drury on Friday, one of the two or three most impactful transactions for the club since it arrived in Denver.

Rantanen has the fourth-most points in the NHL over the past four-plus years, and will almost certainly be one of the three highest-paid players in the league when next season begins.

Chris MacFarland pointed to Rantanen’s pending free agency and the club’s desire to get deeper after three years of being short in that department as reasons for the trade. The NHL’s salary cap ceiling, which is set at $88 million this year but is expected to rise — possibly significantly — in the next couple of seasons is also a factor.

Could the Avs have still found a deal that was acceptable for Rantanen and allowed them to improve their depth for next season and beyond? MacFarland’s decision says the Avalanche did not think so.“One of the areas where it’s clear is we’re not deep enough,” MacFarland said. “And I think that you got to be, you got to be deep to go four rounds. Hopefully, this is going to help that. Obviously, Mikko … he’s a superstar. You can’t replace that. But he’s a superstar who earned the right to be a free agent.

“The cap is going to go up, but you still have to do your internal outlooks. For next year, we still have a serious unknown (with captain Gabe Landeskog). We don’t have that information today. We have to operate in many different lenses and look at it from many different perspectives. That’s certainly one of them.”

There have been reports that Rantanen’s camp wanted a deal similar to the one Leon Draisaitl signed in September — eight years, $14 million per season. That’s the richest deal in the league.

Draisaitl’s teammate, three-time Hart Trophy winner Connor McDavid, is at $12.5 million through the end of next season. Nathan MacKinnon, the reigning league MVP, is at $12.6 million … but through 2031.

That is an important distinction, but that doesn’t mean everyone agrees with Colorado’s decision to move on.

“We’re talking about one of the NHL’s very best players in Mikko Rantanen,” Button said. “If it comes down to they weren’t going to pay him more than Nathan MacKinnon … if that’s the stake you want to put in the ground, that’s fine.

“If that was the rationale — and I can’t see it being anything other than that — I still don’t see how you trade a superstar like that.”

MacKinnon, who said he was shocked by the trade after Colorado’s 3-1 loss Saturday at the Boston Bruins, also addressed the financial ramifications of another player potentially making more money than him.

“I don’t care,” MacKinnon said. “For a long time, I don’t know if I was top-five on the team. Anyone who really knows me knows I really don’t care about money. It’s the last thing on my mind. Whoever is up, I mean, if Cale (Makar) is up, who knows he could get $20 (million per season).

“I want guys to get paid. I think he’s earned it. Mikko has earned a big payday.”

The Avs and Hurricanes engaged in discussions about Necas and Rantanen as far back as June, a league source told The Denver Post. Carolina had a member of its management team at the Avalanche game in New Jersey in early December.

MacFarland noted Necas’ age, speed, skill and that he’s cost-controlled through next season as reasons for acquiring him. The Avs will have Necas and Drury at $8.225M next season, which could be $5M less than Rantanen alone.