Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
The NHL's OFFICIAL POSITION is that Ryan O'Reilly would have had to go through waivers if the Colorado Avalanche did not match Calgary's offer sheet.
That was their opinion weeks ago, it's was their opinion thursday morning, thursday afternoon and thursday night, was re-iterated to the Flames the following morning and as of writing this message, has not been redacted or contradicted in any way.
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Is it their official position or their opinion? I'm not sure it's either just yet.
I don't think you can say it's an official position as they haven't had to make a ruling on it and even suggest they won't on something that is now academic since Colorado signed ROR. If they had to make a ruling on it, I think there would be more discussion and review than if a reporter hounds Daly for a quick question on some CBA stuff.
I also don't think you can say it's their opinion. They've been awfully quiet since the initial matter of fact response. We don't know the context with which the original reporter conferred with Daly. Was Daly in his office with the documents in front and fully reviewed with the NHL legal team before he responded? Was he just getting out of the shower and thought... "oh yeah, he played in Europe, so [going from memory] I think he needs to clear wavers." Maybe he was on Bluetooth driving back to the office after an early morning spa treatment and thought... who is this annoying Sportsnet reporter calling me... "YES, waivers, now beat it!"
The NHL has more than Daly as part of the vetting process on CBA matters. he may be the guy who has to put his name on decisions, but he's not the only guy teams call for opinions. ROR's agent says multiple teams were considering offers and had been consulting with the league and the waivers piece was not brought forward as an issue. For all we know, the NHL lawyers/CBA people have been advising teams that waivers wouldn't apply. The NHL is a big organization... it's not like their lawyers/CBA people are sitting in Bills office giving him updates on every CBA clarification call they took. I'm guessing that's why everyone is being so quiet. The league may have been giving advice in one direction and then Daly blurts out something else without knowing where the train was headed. Now it's academic so no one wants to talk about it.