[sureLoss]

Some notes on the signing from Friedman:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/3...ames-gaudreau/

2. At the end of his contract stalemate, Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau was getting some pressure from teammates to get it done. Word is Lindholm is getting similar messages.

This is an interesting one. Kelly Hrudey and Nick Kypreos made it very clear during Saturday Headlines they weren’t pleased about this.

5. A couple of notes on Gaudreau.

First, I think his opening ask was basically Aaron Ekblad’s contract. The Panthers’ defenceman makes $7.5M in tax-wonderful Florida, so you make allowances for the difference in Alberta.

As it was explained to me by a much-smarter person, someone making $7.5M in that state would net around $4.5M. (There is potential for other deductions, but I’m trying to keep this as simple as possible.) Someone making $7.5M in Calgary would net out around $3.9 million. So you raise your ask to compensate and that’s how I think it went into the $8.5M range. That was not going to happen, but you don’t short-arm your opening offer.

At the end, I think Calgary was only willing to go to $7M if Gaudreau gave up two years of unrestricted free agency, signing for seven seasons. That wasn’t going to happen. It was a struggle, but both player and team will benefit.