Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire
Yeah I doubt that signing bonuses is a major sticking point for the Flames. I'm sure they don't like the large signing bonues but I would think the actual cap hit is the main issue.
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Well, a say $4m SB, paid Jul 1 or Sept 1 each year, as opposed to it being $500k spread over 8 months, is not insignificant value to the player and the team, given that time value of it being in the Flames account, or the player's account.
Affects the Flames internal budgeting and finances, as those are paid before ticket revenue and ad revenue and TV revenue etc have been received and or realized for that upcoming year.
Also affects insurance. If a player gets hurt longer term, I believe the insurance the team carries on the player only pays his salary while on IR, during the season, and this that wouldn't include covering the SB he got in the summer of that year so the Flames wouldn't have protection there if the entire players annual amount was in weekly salary and not a SB.
And, as mentioned I think only JG and SM have that perk of a decent sized SB(and only 1 or 2 in the lives of their contract) so do you want to go and give a Tkachuk a big SB as a perk every year for 7 years that no one else has, in addition to maybe being the top paid player, as far as how that all is compared to the rest of the roster?
Also related, BT doesn't want to set a precedence going forward.
It's of course not up there with term or cap hit, but it's not far behind and not insignificant for a number of reasons.