The Carolina Hurricanes had already made a splash at the opening of free agency, signing both Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting, but the Canes were apparently still looking for more.

One of the reported players that the team still had interest in was free agent winger Vladimir Tarasenko.

The frenzy kicked off Monday evening with The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta stating that Carolina was one of the final teams remaining in on Tarasenko and just a little bit later, it was reported by Shayna Goldman of The Athletic that it seemed like the Hurricanes were going to be the ultimate winners.

Many started putting together their mock lineups, envisioning where the Russian forward would draw in, but the next day came, and still no deal was announced.

And that's when things started to get a little crazier.

Conflicting reports started to come in. The first by 99.9 FM The Fan's Adam Gold stated that Carolina did not have a deal on the table with Tarasenko, but then one by James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now stated that the league was aware of an apparent signing. 

So another day went by, and still nobody was quite sure what the truth of the matter was, but then Tarasenko fired his agent and things started to fall into place.

No agent means no deal and so everything was back to square one.

Perhaps the reports that started to pour in linking Carolina and Tarasenko last week were the words of his former agent, Paul Theofanous. 

Potentially a deal had been struck between the Canes and the former agent, as Pagnotta reported on NHL Network that the Hurricanes had gone as far as having a press release done and ready, but then Tarasenko, unsatisfied with his offers, fired him and basically shut it down.

Tarasenko is now under new management and so no deal was going to just magically appear, but as of last night, the same two teams as before are still finalists: Carolina and Ottawa, according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.

The Senators just cleared some space by shipping out Alex DeBrincat to the Detroit Red Wings, so perhaps they're more willing to throw more money at the veteran sniper now.

Odds are though, that Carolina won't budge from their offer, especially if the offer range reported by New York Post's Larry Brooks - $5.5 to $6 million - is true.

According to Puckpedia.com, the Canes have about $3.32 million of cap space left currently, but teams can go over the cap by 10% during the offseason, meaning that Carolina has an additional $8.35 million to work with, meaning their actual ceiling is around $11.6 million.

However, if the Canes were to put themselves in that position, they'd have to trade away some players in order to get below the cap, and teams could take advantage of that fact leaving the Hurricanes with very poor returns. They won't want to do that, so perhaps a Tarasenko move is only supplemented by  another move prior to that.

There is also the fact that the Canes are still working on a few other moves as well, namely their interest in Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, which will require much more cap space clearing, and the confirmed deal in place with the Philadelphia Flyers for Tony DeAngelo.

So to recap, a deal for Tarasenko might have been in place, but he was unsatisfied with the offers he received and fired his agent, so now the Hurricanes are back to square one, but still have interest in the Russian winger.

Maybe a deal materializes, but Carolina currently has their hands in a lot of pies so it may be less of a priority.

Only time will tell what pans out and with the season still months away, the wait may be a long one.