Again i think the best way to sum it up was that this was handled immaturely by Gaudreau.
The lack of transparency and honesty, while he had a set of "top destinations" that weren't Calgary is a bad look when all is said and done.
Does it make him a rotten guy? No, not really because he's within his rights. And I do think he had some consideration for Calgary until the week before, but he had to have known it wasn't going to be enough ahead of time.
I just look back to when I strung along people in my life. Or got someone's hopes up about something and left them hanging. In retrospect I felt it to be immature handling of those situations on my part and wished I had just been straightforward with them because then it would've saved them unnecessary pain.
So when I see how Gaudreau handled this with the Flames, how he was kind of casual and not clear on where he was leaning, leaving the GM's hands tied to do other things (and yes, the Flames also put themselves in that spot where they could be made vulnerable) and keeping them in the dark into the final day, I just see a guy that doesn't take these things seriously and didn't have a lot of consideration for his old team.
Its fine to get out of the spotlight. But this also shows that Johnny's maybe not the passionate guy we took him to be. He will take anonymity over a place where the game is celebrated and where he can play meaningful hockey, and so that should speak volumes about where the guy's motivations are.
Maybe what the Flames need are guys who want to be here and feed off of the passion around the game here rather than shy away from it.
It's strange, but this could be a blessing in disguise. Maybe Gaudreau, even with all of his skill, isn't the guy that you want driving your team if you're looking to win.
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