Quote:
Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988
Not "sort of".
You can't compare a player that one team is bidding on to a player that, potentially, 30 teams are bidding on.
You can assume what other teams would pay for Gagner, but you don't know until he's truly UFA.
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Right, you can never truly know until he hits UFA status. In Gagner's case the assumption (which is based on what comparable UFAs are signing for so it's not like that's an unreasonable guess) still has to be worked from given that there is no scenario in which he was not a UFA at the end of the deal. The Oilers were buying UFA years (without long term) so have to take that into account even though Gagner is still an RFA. It's not the same as Feaster negotiating with Brodie (or any gm negotiating on a bridge deal), because there is a high likelihood that Brodie will still be an RFA at the end.
While there is no bidding war going on for Gagner it still has to be considered as it's pretty much a guarantee that he gets $3.5 or over from an arbiter (which means the Oilers take a 1 year deal leaving him as a UFA or lose him for nothing immediately), it still has to be considered given this particular circumstance.