DALLAS — Imagine someone pulling Mikko Rantanen aside during training camp in Denver back in September and dropping this kind of crystal ball nonsense to him.

“Hey Mikko, you’re going to score a hat trick in Game 7 … for the Dallas Stars to beat out the Colorado Avalanche.’’

Say what?

“I think I would have left the room in disbelief,’’ Rantanen said with a smile on Saturday night. “But yeah, for sure I would have not believed it had someone told me that.’’

Never mind traded to Carolina in between all that.

“Yeah, difficult year personally, you know, mentally tough overall,’’ Rantanen continued. “Getting traded twice — it’s not fun ever to get traded even once, but twice in a season. But I got to thank everyone here in Dallas. Everybody who works for the team, obviously the players and coaches, massage therapist, every guy. They’ve been very welcoming, helping me to adapt. It obviously takes time to adapt. But everybody has been so welcoming. It makes it easier for me.’’

This may be the night that he truly became a Dallas Star in every sense of the word.

Rantanen’s drama-filled season added a wild chapter with his Game 7 heroics Saturday night in a comeback, 4-2 win over his old team to cap one of the most memorable first-round series in the modern era.

“Mikko put the team on his back,” Stars GM Jim Nill told The Athletic moments after a win people won’t soon forget in these parts. “Colorado’s a heck of a team. But Mikko decided to put the team on his back. He drove it.’’

It’s the kind of game Nill had in mind when he pounced on the opportunity to get him out of Carolina at the deadline March 7, and sign him to an eight-year extension. He was adding a playoff monster, one he saw up close in this Dallas-Colorado rivalry.

“That’s what you’re hoping,” Nill said. “His history and resume show that’s what he is.’’

The playoffs began with Rantanen feeling the heat for putting up just one assist in four games. There were questions about whether No. 96 was struggling to adjust to his new surroundings. There were questions about whether it was too difficult for him to wrap his mind around playing his longtime pals in Colorado. There were questions about whether he could still produce at the same level without his old buddy Nathan MacKinnon on his line.

“I think he answered that question,’’ Stars head coach Peter DeBoer said to that last one.

Rantanen put up 11 points (6-5) in the last three games, and well, playoff Mikko was back. And he saved the Stars in a series where they were outplayed for long stretches by the Avalanche.

Which was punctuated by his first goal Saturday night to get his team going, the Stars down 2-0 in the third period, a laser of a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood and ignited the improbable comeback.

“He just said, `F–k this’ on that first goal,’’ said Stars veteran Matt Duchene. “And after that, you could feel something was coming. You could just feel it. He stepped up last few games big time. It was great.’’

It was billed the Mikko Rantanen bowl. It only made sense the guy named after it decided the outcome.

“You can’t write it up any better than that,” said Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, who was excellent again Saturday night. “Guy comes over, knocks out his old team, puts the team on his back. One of the best individual performances I’ve seen in the playoffs in my life. So happy for him.”

Midway through this series, Rantanen was still fighting it. But behind the scenes, the Stars saw a quality person and star player not letting it affect his attitude, his preparation, his demeanor. He stayed with it. And then he exploded.

“He took over the series the last three games,’’ said DeBoer, now a ridiculous 9-0 coaching in Game 7s. “He just decided that we were not going to go home and we were not going to lose. It started then. What you witnessed there was special. This is the best league in the world, against one of the top five teams in the world, and what he did there down the stretch was special.”

It was shock and disappointment in the Avalanche dressing room. But certainly not surprise when it came to their old pal playing playoff hero. They saw that first-hand for a decade in Coronado.

“Credit to him,” Avs superstar defenseman Cale Makar said. “Obviously he’s their guy. He took over. Just a tough circumstance of events. I don’t really have any words right now to describe what happened.’’

Added MacKinnon, who scored his playoff-leading seventh goal on this night: “I don’t know. It’s pretty shocking. Felt like we were in total control and then Mikko, credit to him, he made some amazing plays. He was a difference maker and he took over. I don’t know. I’m in shock to be honest with you. Felt like we were in complete control of the game the whole time and just lost it.’’

Because the Moose took over. Rantanen’s second goal, a spectacular wraparound effort banked off Samuel Girard, brought the house down. Then he assisted on Wyatt Johnston’s game-winner on a power play. Then, well, of course Rantanen capped the night with an empty-netter which rained down hats on the ice.

“Obviously the feeling is incredible,’’ said Rantanen. “To win a series, first of all, against a really good team. The series was exactly what I expected, you know, I expected a seven-game series even before Game 1.’’

The handshake line was predictably charged. There were affectionate embraces between Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog, and then Rantanen and MacKinnon.

“It’s emotional. They’re my brothers for sure,” Rantanen said. “Most of them I know really well and played with them for 10 years. A couple of guys have been there since Day 1, Nate and Landy. So it’s emotional. We’re enemies this series on the ice, but I always love them off the ice. Between games, day off, I love every one of them. And then when we go on the ice, they’re enemies. But that’s how it goes. Yeah, it’s emotional for sure. Because everything happened so quick. It’s only a couple of months since I was still with them, playing with them, and chasing a playoff spot and all that. And all of sudden playing against them in a Game 7, emotional is the right word for sure.’’

I go back to a comment MacKinnon made to me the morning of Game 5 when I asked him again to revisit his own emotions from the day Rantanen was traded to Carolina. It was a trade at the time No. 29 couldn’t wrap his mind around. Even three and a half months later, it’s a trade hard to digest.

“You just never really think it’s going to get to that point,” MacKinnon told The Athletic last Monday. “I feel like in hockey, most guys stay, star players at least, and most guys figure out contracts. He’s a star, he’s one of the best players in our league. Yeah, it was shocking. He was my linemate for close to 10 years. Close friend. Definitely shocking. And we still miss him. He’s a great person.’’

A lot will be made now of the Avs’ decision coming back to haunt them. It’s a bit unfair. First of all, they thought they were never going to be able to to sign him to a number that worked for them. So they got the best trade they could for him as a pending UFA. Second, never in their wildest dreams did they think he would get dealt again and dealt to their rival in Dallas.

The Stars and Avalanche meeting in the first round was going to be unfair for one team. Turns out it wasn’t only unfair, it was, for Colorado, soul-crushing in the manner in which it ended.

But it was as close a series as you’re going to see.

“I have a hard time believing there’s any team that’s that much better than Colorado out there left,” said Oettinger.

“That was an absolute gauntlet of a series,’’ DeBoer said, tipping his hat to the Avs.

In the hallway joining both teams, Nill and his counterpart Chris MacFarland exchanged a warm hug after Game 7. There’s so much respect between both GMs and between both organizations.

“One of us wasn’t going to be happy,” Nill said. “They’ve done a heck of a job there. This was like a finals series.’’

But in the end, it’s a Stars team without No. 1 defenseman Miro Heiskanen and leading scorer Jason Robertson that found a way. Which says a lot about the team’s DNA.

“They’ve done it all year this season, they’ve done it for the last two to three years,” said Nill. “We got a great room. They just dig in.’’

It’s the hallmark of a championship team.

“You know what? Jim’s done an unbelievable job making this team deep enough where we can kind of afford to have injuries like that and still be great,” said Duchene. “Just huge. We had a lot of guys stepping up and doing big things. It takes a village, right?’’

DeBoer said postgame that Heiskanen and Robertson are getting closer and both should play in the second round at some point.

Watch out, NHL, the Stars are getting healthy. And after a title belt series with the Avs, they’re feeling mighty good.

“I think there’s something special going on,’’ said DeBoer.

After losing in the Cup final in ’20 and going to back-to-back conference finals in ’23 and ’24, Dallas is knocking at the door.

Rantanen, for one, sees some similarities to his Avs championship squad from ’22.

“I think it was a really deep team (in ’22) when we won,” said Rantanen. “I can see some similarities in this team. Obviously we were missing Miro and Robo the whole first round, they’re two elite players. Whenever we get them back it’s going to help and give us even more depth. But I think the depth is a really big key in a Cup run.’’

And hey, who knows, we might get a Carolina-Dallas Stanley Cup final in six weeks, the Mikko Rantanen bowl, part deux.

On this night, Rantanen couldn’t stop smiling.

He had the weight of the world on his shoulders before this series. And he delivered in the most dramatic of ways.

Was it delicious revenge? Nah, that’s not Rantanen’s style.

“Well, I don’t know. Like I said before when I got traded, it’s business,’’ he said. “Obviously things happened not the way I expected. But it’s business like I’ve said many times. I don’t know about revenge, I’m just happy to win (against) another team in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter who it is. So, I’m just happy to be on the winning side and move on here.’’

(Top photo of Mikko Rantanen following his hat-trick: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)