Quote:
Originally Posted by Bezer
They couldn’t bring him up other than emergency recall if I remember correctly
|
They could've brought Phaneuf up if they'd been able to get him under contract.
Pre-2004, rookie contracts weren't boilerplate the way they are now. I believe Phaneuf's actual rookie deal paid him north of $2M a season in straight salary (he signed it like the day before the lockout officially started, from what I remember).
I recall Darryl saying something in an interview that 'you don't just hand a player a contract and he signs, that's not how it works'.