[gpflamesfan]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

I am still looking at this as Erixon having even less class than Lindros did.

At least Lindros told the Nerds that he did not want to go there, don't draft me. After he was drafted, he said "I will not go there, trade me."

In 2 years, Erixon didn't appear to mention anything. "Upset" or not at the draft, he showed up to all the Flames' requirements, met with Flames' officials (scouts, conditioning coach I believe, etc) in Sweden.. in a few interviews, stated how he was looking forward to coming here.

At the last hour, he (or his agent + dad) that he can just turn around and say "Trade me to NYR ONLY or I will re-enter the draft."

Seriously.. At least Lindros - and at the time it was a stench of a move that has lasted to this day - gave the Nords time to assemble trade proposals, and did not select his ONLY team.

I was really looking forward to seeing Erixon this year. I was betting he would make it, and slide into a 4th position, and allow some room to be made in terms of salary because of it - if not at the beginning of the season, then towards the deadline.

You can not possibly rule out collusion here with NYR. There is no way that any draftee should select where he wants to play. If you think you have the right to select where you want to play, stay in Sweden. How many teams would fold if the entire draft class could hand pick the teams they go to? Colombus, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Florida, Carolina, etc., would never get better, and would eventually fold. Pittsburgh would never had Crosby, Malkin, Staal, etc., and won the cup. Washington would still be a terrible team.

This whole thing really stinks. It stinks more than Lindros and every other player that didn't want to sign with the team. This is a player that pulled the rug underneath the feet of a franchise, and flipped the bird to a century old organization's system of fairly distributing new players in order to facilitate a stronger league over-all.

The CBA need to address this. Why won't the next 20 draft picks do this? Why did Taylor Hall - a Calgary fan - proudly stand up and walk over to Tambo and play his heart out for the 'enemy'? Why did Iggy do the same here in Calgary? Because it is the right thing to do. It was the honorable thing to do. No draftee should dictate where he wants to get to play.

The reason Taylor Hall walked over and put on the blue sweater is because he wanted to play in the NHL now and pickup the big cheque that comes with it. I am not 100% sure but I think players need to wait 2 years before re-entering the draft. If Erixson would have been a sure fire NHLer his first year I have now doubt that he would have been signed right off and he would have suited up for Calgary and waited until he became an RFA before trying to pull a move like this. The fact is this was a crappy situation. Erixson was not good enought to play right out of the draft like Crosby, Stamkos or Hall so Calgary did not want to throw millions of dollars at him and burn up his ELC. It took 2 years for Erixson to get "NHL ready" and now conviently he has a choice to sign or re-enter the draft. Calgary managment took a low risk as do most teams to wait and sign their prospects but Erixsons huge strides in development coupled with his attitude about playing outside of New York burn the club. Its happened before, it will happen again. It just sucks. I guess we just need to either suck bad to get a sure fire prospect or draft crappier players.