Yah I'm not buying this GG wants Wideman away from the team bit because he's terrible. If it's true, then it's a brand new development that's come about in regards to how Wideman has responded to the Flames acquiring players that push Wideman out of his spot on the 2nd pair, and / or the Flames not coming through with a trade that will allow Wideman to get ample ice time elsewhere down the stretch. Which I guess is plausible given I'm sure Wideman is hoping to maximise his potential for a new contract somewhere next year..........hard to do that if you aren't playing.
But if Wideman was this bad influence on the team prior, he simply would not have been playing as much as he did. This theory that GG was forced to play him holds no weight IMO, because it's clear management was definetely on the we would like to make the playoffs train this year, and they wouldn't have risked that simply to play Wideman to increase his trade value. We aren't talking about a guy who you could realistically hope could maybe play his way into earning you a 1st round pick, we are talking about an expensive player, who completely controls where he goes who certainly isn't a top 4 guy anymore no matter how well he plays. So we are talking about trying to maybe get a mid round pick for him at best, if anything at all (and we saw how it played out).
Highly doubt BT and Burke would make GG play someone who was a bad influence on the team, risking our chances at playoffs for the chance to maybe squeeze an extra mid to late pick out of someone at the deadline given his contract is up at the end of the year. Wideman was playing because GG felt he was the best option for the team to win games prior to our trades, which means he couldn't have been the worlds worst team mate.
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