Quote:
Originally Posted by TheoFleury
If Gaudreau is fully prepared to sit out half the season or more, I would say whatever leverage the Flames have will disappear into nothing as the months drag on. It all comes down to how determined Gaudreau is, and nobody here has any idea how far he is willing to go. For all we know he could be 100% willing to sit out the season. Leverage is a funny thing, it can change drastically over time. Months into a holdout, RFA years, arbitration rights, etc, will mean nothing because the Flames will have most likely destroyed the relationship with the player. There is a real possibility of the Flames over playing their hand here if Gaudreau refuses to blink.
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Well, that's a possibility. But it's got a snowball's chance in hell of actually happening, IMO. He doesn't strike me as the type to sit out for that amount of time. He's said multiple times to let his agent do all that while he focuses on hockey. Johnny wants his agent to negotiate the best contract and advise his career moves, but once the business side crosses over too far into the hockey side he'll probably step in and put his foot down.
In the end, Lewis Gross can pretty much haggle all he wants, but the Flames have drawn the line in the sand and are refusing to budge. I don't think Gross really believes that the Flames are going to acquiesce to his contract demands, but he's gonna put in the effort all the same, until the bitter end - any potential future superstar-level clientele will be looking at the Gaudreau contract negotiation process as a measuring stick.