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Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Seravalli on 960 this morning saying the Flames made their pitch and the Gaudreau side has gone silent. He equated it to asking someone to marry you and when there is no answer, just a long pause, you already know the answer. Sounds like he's going to test free agency.
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As transplant said above there's really no reason for him not to. The only carrot is tacking on an 8th year to the deal, which in all likelihood (other than due to injury) is a year he'll sign on for an extension/new deal for anyway.
All the talk about similar overall dollars but over 8yrs instead of 7yrs doesn't really make sense for him to me. If the offer's the same as he's expecting to see per year from other teams, but with the 8th year tacked on at the same AAV, then maybe that'd be appealing (so 8x11 instead of 7x11 or whatever the AAV is). But I think if that was the offer he would have signed it already, so he probably thinks he can get more money, closer to home, and isn't worried about the 8th year. Worst case he doesn't get the offer he's expecting and turns around & signs to stay anyway.
It's low risk & potential high reward for him to test the waters. (I think there's 0% chance the Flames go sign someone else before Johnny makes up his mind). My guess is Gaudreau finds that high reward elsewhere, and we're spending that cap space on a different acquisition after the fact. I just hope he decides before we miss out on the Plan B/C options.