Trust me, I've been involved in a million situations like this. I get a soft offer that I like, and when I try to finalize it, the other GM back pedals to the point that there is no more deal to be had, lol. When I first started fantasy hockey, I remember the trend was getting a million "low ball offers", rejecting them, and then getting asked to counter (based off a ridiculous starting point). But now I find there is a lot more of the opposite happening, a back peddling trend...
The Zucker pick up for you was very solid, so at least you got something out of it