Quote:
Originally Posted by soulchoice
Not only that but even at that amount there is still no guarantee Stone would have extended with the Flames. Las Vegas has quickly become One of the upper echelon of places players want to play. Whereas the Flames despite the recent regular season success is on the lower tier for places players choose to go to, as proven by being on a majority of lists for those with no trade clauses.
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IMO this is a very weak argument.
The Flames had quite a few more points than Vegas at the time.
His own brother played on the team, and it's close to his hometown. They have other Calgary family connections as well. Plus, there both wholesome family men.
He would get to play with Gaudreau and Monahan, which is arguably more exciting that his line-mates on Vegas. The difference from taxes is almost negligible, may 1% or so difference.
Plus, the Flames were interested, and they did bite. I doubt that the Flames would have gotten far in trade talks in it was obvious Stone, for whatever reason, didn't want to be in Calgary.
Basically, Vegas wanted Valimaki, and that's where it fell apart.
Stone ended up signing for what I think is a reasonable cap hit, considering he's probably a top 3 RW in the league.