Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Anyone that is forced to play with Raymond. When the guy can't execute the most basic of plays, and plays die on his stick, that hurts everyone playing with him. The guy's only positive to his game anymore is he manages to get in the way a lot. Sadly, that happens in the offensive zone as much as in the defensive zone. I don't know how anyone who watches Flames games can honestly defend Mason Raymond's play and suggest he is not holding his line mates back.
I think the Flames have been lucky that there haven't been any contracts come up that could use Mason Raymond as a comparable. You hope that you don't have that contract around when it comes time for comparables or the team is going to have to up the ante. That is the negative of having bad contracts around. It is one thing to have a comparable from an other team, as you can make a much better argument about different environments having different outcomes. But when you have a bad contract on the team, and that guy gets outplayed by everyone, it is really hard to argue that contract away.
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Do you remember when Raymond was signed? He had just come off a 0.5 PPG season with the Leafs. A 29 year old, 45 point player? I'd say that getting him at 3 x $3m was a good deal at the time. The fact that he hasn't got it done is nothing to do with Treliving and it doesn't make it a bad contract.
When it was signed, it looked fine. Blaming Treliving for making a reasonable deal 18 months ago just because Raymond has not produced is unfair on the GM.