From trade thread:
My guess at what happened is, the Avs were willing to pay Mikko a little more than the highest paid winger who is Panarin at $11.6M, but that's what they were willing to compromise at. They were probably stuck offering around $11.25M, hoping, but realistically not expecting Mikko to take $11.75M or so.
Mikko on the other hand has said he was willing to compromise from his ask, and take Nate's deal or perhaps a little less around $12.6M, but his agent was probably still at a higher number, probably in the $13M's, thinking they'd be negotiating all the way until the summer, because that's what the Avs do, and they play hardball so you have to counter by playing hardball yourself.
But I think the problem is, the Avs never wanted to pay him more than around $11.75M, so they just stopped trying to negotiate, since they knew the compromise number was gonna be around Nate's $12.6M, and they didn't want to come anywhere near that.
I don't think they were serious about trying to re-sign him, I think that was just PR so they could say they tried to keep a popular player.
IMO it's a bit disingenuous to say they were willing to make Mikko the highest paid winger, when he would be the highest paid winger at $11.75M or so for about five minutes, and expecting him to take around the same AAV as Panarin, when Panarin signed his $11.6M deal 6 years ago, is kind of a slap in the face IMO.
I think the Avs would have been better off just having an open and honest conversation with Mikko about what they were willing to do and why they couldn't go higher. I understand the reason they let him go, and if they use his cap space to improve the team properly, I can get on board, but I think Mikko deserved a more honest dialogue. It wouldn't have impacted the trade.
