New evidence exposed that the Avalanche screwed Mikko Rantanen!

On Deadline Day on Friday, Mikko Rantanen was traded to the Stars by the Carolina Hurricanes and then signed an eight-year, $96 million deal with Dallas. It was the final chapter in a long saga. Rantanen thought he would play his entire NHL career with the Colorado Avalanche until the team traded him to the Canes in January.

Over the weekend, Rantanen and the Stars came to Denver and he received some cheers, but also some boos in his comeback and felt he needed to explain how he never wanted to leave Colorado.

During his press conference on Saturday, just a day before the 4-3 overtime loss to his former team, Rantanen said that he had expressed a desire to remain with the team while talking to the Avs front office before he was abruptly dealt to Carolina.

“Six weeks before the deadline, we were still negotiating at that point, and I felt at that time I needed to go talk to front office, which I did, face to face,” Rantanen said. “I told them I’ll be flexible, and I want to play here for a long time.

”Then a couple days later they traded me.”

The heartbreaking trade marked the end of his 10-season tenure with the Avalanche. Rantanen couldn’t picture a future in Carolina and at the deadline was traded again and signed a long-term contract in Dallas.

“I heard about something that (choosing Dallas) was a family decision. That was not true at all,” Rantanen said. “It was a hockey decision at the end of the day—my hockey career.

”Family will come wherever I want to go.”

It just feels like the Avs did Rantanen and his family dirty. He came to Colorado on the weekend as a visitor, for the first time in his career, something he never expected in the first place.

Since his debut with the Stars, Rantanen has quickly made an impact, recording two goals and two assists while playing on the top line.