Quote:
Originally Posted by really?
Totally accurate and this is the product of a failure to be proactive. It is understandable that the team needed to show Gaudreau they were committed to winning and Treliving paid a price to do that. Now they are in limbo hoping he decides to stay. They will have to pay a premium and face a similar scenario with Tkachuk. I think Treliving is a real solid manager, but hopefully he has learned from this. His deadline needed to be when the trade clause activated, as that was the last date the team had any measure of leverage.
|
Treliving certainly deserves criticism for mistakes he has made, but my problem with this whole discussion is that I very much doubt this was one of them. You talk about the situation as if the only thing different today from a year ago is the activation of Gaudreau's trade protection, and that is simply not the case. In other words, no one should doubt for a second that Treliving understood the implications of last year's "deadline," and what could potentially happen if they walked past it. It seems impossible to me to imagine that he did not explore the scenarios from that point up to 13 July at that time, and he made his decision fully aware of the outcome that we are currently moving towards. But, the thing is, Gaudreau was not a 115 point player last year, and I very seriously doubt his trade value heading into the summer of 2021 was all that attractive at the time. While I am sure the Flames were hesitant to pay Gaudreau last summer what they are happy to pay him now, by the same token I also think there is no chance Gaudreau was interested in extending at what he appeared to be worth, coming off of two down-seasons.
Quote:
|
I understand Gaudreau probably wouldn't have signed given the recent history of the team, but now they've charted a course that has cost them assets and left them with only a pail full of hope. Not an enviable position...
|
It was not "the recent history of the team" that was making Gaudreau reluctant to sign last summer. It was the disappointment of his most recent performances which had significantly affected his value at the time. I am quite sure Gaudreau was much more keen on playing out this year to see if he could garner a better offer with better results. It seems unlikely that he was also mulling over the team's future in his calculations.
Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk