Mikko Rantanen speaks out after “brutal” trade.

The Colorado Avalanche stunned their fans last week when they made the difficult decision to move on from longtime star forward Mikko Rantanen, trading him to the Carolina Hurricanes in arguably the biggest in season trade in recent National Hockey League history.

Fans however were not the only ones left stunned by the trade.

Over the weekend Rantanen, a native of Nousiainen, Finland, had a chance to speak with members of the Finnish media who interviewed him following his first game as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes and it would be during that interview that he would reveal just how surprised he was by the trade.

"I played in Colorado for almost ten years and contributed a lot to the organization. We even won a championship. That’s why this trade came as such a surprise," admitted Rantanen as per Ilta Sanomat. 

In fact Rantanen would go so far as to admit that this was his first taste of just how ruthless of a business the National Hockey League can be.

"The trade came as a big surprise to me, I didn't expect it at all," he admitted. "Now I saw for the first time how brutal business in the NHL can be."

There has been much speculation that this came down to exorbitant contract demands on the part of Rantanen, demands that the Avalanche were simply unwilling to meet, but Rantanen argues that he was prepared to take a hometown discount to remain with the Avalanche moving forward.

"I don’t think that’s true. I don’t want to talk exact numbers, but I was willing to take a significant cut below my market value. That’s why this trade was such a shock to me," said the Finnish forward.

It seems as though Rantanen was completely blindsided by the trade and had absolutely no idea that the option was ever really truly on the table.

"The lines of communication about a new contract with the team were open," said Rantanen. "I was ready to take a discount compared to my market value. We were even discussing the deal quite recently."

Of course there are always two sides to every story and no one but Rantanen, his representatives and the Avalanche themselves truly know why things fell apart behind the scenes and resulted in one of the more shocking trades in recent NHL history.