Mikko Rantanen puts pressure on the Avalanche, begins skating with team in Europe.

The situation surrounding the big ticket restricted free agents in the National Hockey League this summer is unlike anything I have ever covered during my time as a hockey writer before. Of course I have seen individual players like former Winnipeg Jets' defenseman Jacob Trouba or current Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander push a hold out well into the regular season before, but the sheer number of restricted free agent players, star players no less, still without a contract this year is something to behold. 

From the outside looking in it all seems like one big giant game of chicken, and I don't just mean between the players and their respective organizations. No it seems like general managers may be playing a game of chicken with one another as well as everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to make the first big move. Although things have been quiet when it comes to news about these ongoing negotiations, the talk over the last several days has started to ramp up with some fairly significant threats from the player side of the things. 

Last week it came out that Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner, or at least the people who represent him, had already initiated talks with the Zurich Lions of the Swiss League, a move clearly designed to apply additional pressure to Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas and to the Leafs organization as a whole. Although no one truly believes that Marner would leave tens of millions of dollars on the table to go play in the Swiss League, where no team could realistically hope to match the salary he would earn in the NHL, the thought of him even spending all of training camp and maybe more certainly has to be an unpleasant one for the Leafs.

Making the threat is one thing however, and acting on it immediately without so much as a warning however is another matter entirely. That appears to be exactly what Colorado Avalanche star forward Mikko Rantanen has done however, and the Colorado Avalanche are already being made the subjects of taunts as a result of his decision. 

According to a report directly from Storhamar Hockey, a team that plays in Norway's highest tier of professional hockey, they have been joined in camp by none other than Mikko Rantanen himself. This does not appear to be some kind of marketing ploy either as Rantanen is pictured wearing the teams colors in the social media post from Storhamar Hockey, although it is very likely that he is only doing so to keep himself in game shape with the risk of missing training camp looming.