I forget who recently reported that this offseason, his response to questioning was I don't get involved with the negotiations, I just leave it to my agent to take care of it. That's pretty much the same story I remember from 2019, and that went right up until the start of the season, and I think the Avs caved for more than they originally wanted to that time. I feel this time, the Avs wanted this figured out this past summer, and Mikko just kept to the plan of 'I'll let my agent deal with it.' So they didn't reach agreement, and allowed this to continue into this season, Avs still hoping to get a deal before the TDL. But they had decided this time, they were NOT going to let it go past that, and I think they correctly saw that Mikko and his agent were perfectly willing to keep 'negotiating' beyond the TDL, because they knew their leverage only increased in that case, as they try to play other teams offers to put pressure on the Avs to increase their offer. They wanted to stay 'flexible'.
In this interview, I think he used the phrase at least half a dozen times that he told Avs front office he would be "flexible". But what does that even mean, and what was the tone and the context? Are you willing to accept what the Avs say they are able to offer, or not?
I got the sense from that interview he feels a bit sheepish about how it went down, and doesn't want the fans to think less of him, but realizes he played a big part in what happened, because he knows he didn't just tell the agent to accept the best deal. So he keeps repeating that he told the Avs he would be "flexible".
But if you are not telling your agent that you want to accept their offer, and you let him continue 'dealing with it', then say you want to be "flexible" probably comes off mostly as, 'I want to keep my options open.'
So the Avs suspected their offer was not going to be accepted even if they waited to the TDL, if it still hadn't been accepted since last year, and they got a trade offer they thought was fair value, and said we are not going to let this get to the point of him potentially walking. They knew if they continued to wait, Carolina probably makes the trade with someone else, and the Avs are left with a potentially weaker position.