We now know how badly things went behind the scenes between Rantanen and the Hurricanes

Mikko Rantanen was at the center of this season's two biggest trades.

The Colorado Avalanche shocked the hockey world by sending Rantanen, a star pending free agent, to the Carolina Hurricanes in a package deal that netted them forwards Martin Necas, Jack Drury and draft picks. Rantanen had made it clear that he was looking for a big money, max term contract which the Hurricanes were willing to give him. The problem is... Rantanen wasn't interested in staying in North Carolina. 

After reportedly turning down an eight year, $96 million deal from the Hurricanes Rantanen was shipped to the Dallas Stars at the trade deadline this past Friday. Rantanen then immediately signed a matching eight year, $96 million with the Stars, leading Hurricanes fans to ask the question, "What gives?"

Why did Rantanen choose to sign in Dallas but not in Carolina?

Head coach Rod Brind'Amour provided some clarity today with details on what happened behind the scenes.

“When [Rantanen] showed up, he said, ‘There’s four teams I’ll go play for, and you’re not one of them.’ And the question is, should we have known that before we signed him? Or attempted to sign him,” Brind'Amour told radio host Adam Gold earlier today.

"Guentzel was the totally opposite thing. We offered him the contract and he's here. That's a different conversation. All the other guys who walked out of here for free agency is because they got paid a lot more money than we were offering, but they all wanted to stay. Mikko was the only one that said, 'This is not for me', and I think there are other circumstances around that. It's not because of the hockey, it's because I think with his family it just wasn't for him. I appreciate that and that he let us know that, but we should have maybe known that before making the deal. Maybe that changes how we go about things?"

Yeesh...

If that's not an indictment of GM Eric Tulsky I don't know what is?

To be fair though, I'm a fan of Tulsky and the big game hunting that he does on the NHL trade market. The fact is that the NHL would be a lot more entertaining if more GM's stuck their necks out once in a while.