Do I really need to post a map of North America for you people?
11 months ago Johnny was probably looking at $64-68M over 8 years to stay in CGY.
He played well and the team played well - I'm sure he worked really hard and also had good luck that lots of things clicked.
Today he signed for $68.25M over 7 years. And moved nearly 2000 miles closer to home. That's 83% closer in absolute distance...probably even closer in most (but not all) practical terms.
He turned down $84 over 8 to test the market. I'm sure he hoped to do better than this...I'm sure he also knew this low was a possibility - though he probably didn't expect it.
It's not ideal compared to his hopes/expectations 1 day ago. But it's a massive improvement over his reality 11 months ago. I doubt he'll lose much sleep over this.
On the hockey side he has probably downgraded his playoff chances for the next 2-3 years from slight to very slim. Beyond that I'd bet on CBJ>CGY. It's currently hard to imagine any of his rumoured suitors developing into true contenders, though I think teams like CBJ/NJD/NYI only need
a lot of luck to get there (CGY needs a metric tonne of luck IMO).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
Did anyone see Gaudreau going to Columbus?
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I won't say I predicted it, but I certainly said CBJ were an intriguing dark horse.