Quote:
I don’t believe they acquired Messier with the purposes of signing him.
It was a now closed loophole in the CBA dealing with free agent compensation.
If he re-signed with the Rangers they would receive no compensation, but if he resigned with a different team the Rangers would get a 3rd or a 2nd round pick, I forget which exactly.
So in essence the Sharks received the compensation & traded a 4th round pick for a 3rd round pick. The Rangers received a 4th round pick as they wouldn’t have received anything for re-signing Messier.
The Leafs & the Flames made a similar deal with CuJo.
|
Close, but iirc it was actually the Rangers wouldn't receive compensation because of their payroll or whatever they used. So they would trade him to a team that wasn't going to sign him, but would get the compensatory pick. So the Rangers would get something and the middle-man team would get something.
Same thing happened with Richter.