Mikko Rantanen has said he never wanted the Colorado Avalanche to trade him, that he thought they could work out a new contract to keep him with the only team he had played for before a blockbuster Friday night in January.

Well, clearly that didn’t happen, because on Jan. 24 the forward was traded by Colorado to Carolina. Six weeks later, after that experiment didn’t work and the Hurricanes found out Rantanen wasn’t going to re-sign with them, they traded him to the Dallas Stars.

All of that gets Rantanen to where he is now, preparing to welcome his former team, the Avalanche, into his new home six weeks and one day after the Stars acquired him, 12 weeks and one day after Colorado traded him.

Game 1 between the Stars and Avalanche is at American Airlines Center on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, MAX, SN, SN360, TVAS, ALT, Victory+).

Since the Quebec Nordiques became the Avalanche in 1995-96, Rantanen is fifth in franchise history with 681 points (287 goals, 394 assists) in the regular season. He’s fourth with 101 points (34 goals, 67 assists) in the playoffs. He won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022.

And now he wants to beat them.