I'm with the crowd who thinks he figured he could get a deal with Philly or New Jersey and it backfired on him. Columbus was the only option left and he didn't want to be left out.
Unless he really did hate it in Calgary I think it was mistake to tell the Flames he wasn't coming back. Instead he could have told them he wanted to see what his options were before making a decision. I think maybe he knew if he circled back to the Flames after saying he wasn't coming back things wouldn't be the same.
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