It was in Ottawa's best interest to keep multiple teams on the hook. Much like what happened with Iginla, if it had been made clear to other teams that Stone was only going to sign in Vegas, than the market would evaporate and lower the return. Adam Fox (for Carolina) and Tom Erixon are other examples where the return was impacted by the clarity that the player was only going to sign in one place.
It's a situation where everyone has a different outcome that isn't aligned
Mark Stone wants to sign in Vegas
Ottawa wants to maximize their return
The other teams want to minimize what they have to pay to get the player and be confident they can sign him
Because those motivations are not aligned, we should not expect that the parties involved were being completely truthful with each other.
BT would have stayed involved hoping he could acquire the player and sign him - even as it starting to become clear that wasn't the case. But I can't imagine at any point Ottawa would have said "Yeah you know what Brad - he has no interest in signing with you - so you might as well bow out".
Doesn't make sense.
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