Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacks
If the seller is not willing to accept the offer then you have not established value. If Burke decided that keeping Cammy for the rest of the year, having an increased chance at re-signing him and/or setting a tone for future trades is worth more than he was being offered then the offer was below value.
That being said, for all we know they might have had a deal but were was beat by the clock due to other players not moving fast enough.
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It's likely that more than anything. I don't think GM's are "wising up" its that all the cards were held in Snow's hands, and teams weren't willing to fold to Snow's demands. (Partially also due to limited cap room) By holding off, everyone was sitting on the sidelines, as all the buyers wanted to see where Vanek/Moulson go, and not wanting to burn up their cap room too soon (see: Anahaim shipping off Penner). Cap room was king this trade deadline, as most teams had to eat contract to milk a few mid round picks (see: Edmonton)
Burke, after spending the first half of the season getting, doing his DD on the team and finding out there wasn't a lot of respect for the Flames, saw an importance to turn the Flames reputation around and not get bullied (see: Regehr, Iginla, Bouw). For the days leading up to today, the deadline, Burke said over and over again that the market was being held up by a few players -Vanek/Moulson, and there just was no interest for Cammalleri. Some teams gave up early and went with plan B (LA/Gaborik, Ottawa/Hemsky) but even then the seller had to eat salary to make it work. Buyers pinched sellers to the deadline and Vanek and Moulson went for cents on the dollar... NYI/Buffalo both folded. Calgary was pinched off too, but did not fold like a cheap tent... Calgary called their bluff. Do I think Burke was working on a deal up to the last second? You bet..... Anahaim HAD to do something. You don't just ship off Penner for a 4th for no reason, they wanted to add a game breaker. At the same time, Burke said he was working on a 3 way deal that would see them eat salary, you have to think it was Anahaim. Burke said time ran out, which coincides with the timeline of Vanek/Moulson, i.e. a team was ready to give Burke what he wanted, but they just ran out of time. I bet that team was Anahaim... of coarse, all of this is my own personal speculation anyways.
Do I blame Burke for pushing to the last second but running out of time? Not really... kind of sucks but I get it. It wasn't spitting on someone else's offer or anything, its relying on his experience, he set out on a game plan and carried it through. To him, it was the risk of getting fair return at the risk of getting nothing, or he could do what Feaster does and take mediocre return; he took the former, and I respect that. Some don't which is fine, others can speculate that he was too arrogant and thats fine too.