[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

I'm reading Dom Luszczyszyn, who writes

"Johnny Gaudreau's play going into UFA was far superior to Artemi Panarin’s during his run to free agency, and he comes in nearly $2 million cheaper. It boggles the mind, especially knowing that Calgary offered $10.5 million over eight seasons."

In other words, cap adjusted, he expected Johnny to fetch $11m-$13m per season. I think that Dom Luszczyszyn is a smart guy and it's plausible Gross and Gaudreau thus expected that Johnny would also get $11m-$13m per year from some team out east. This would allow Johnny to BOTH (a) Play out east and (b) make comparable or more money than the flames offered.

BUT...the offers in the $11m-$13m range never came to fruition.

Johnny still took the highest offer available from an US Eastern Conference team as a UFA which was 7 x $9.75. No other team beat that. The islanders were at $9. The devils were between $9-$10. Columbus beat them both.

That's what happened. Johnny wanted to be out east. But they also misjudged the market. And then they made the best of a bad situation, which was Columbus for 7 years at $9.75m.


That's what happened. In hindsight, does Johnny wish he took the $10.5m x 8 from Calgary? Maybe. Maybe Calgary + $15m over 8 years is better than Columbus. But that offer was no longer on the table as of this morning because the 8th year was gone.


This is the logical explanation of what happened.

LeBrun sort of confirms this in an article this morning

The New York Islanders showed interest but couldn’t create the cap room to get more seriously involved.

Philadelphia Flyers never really got involved.

Sources confirmed that the New Jersey Devils offered a seven-year deal, with the dollar amount somewhere “in the nines’. However, the Devils didn’t really hear back for a long time from agent Lewis Gross.

That’s because Gross was busy working on the best offer he got on this day: seven years and a $9.75 million U.S. AAV from the Columbus Blue Jackets.