Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Part of it I think is due to the fact he's just not particularly well spoken. However, it was VERY weird.
I still believe that he thought he would land in Philly and that the Flyers would make the necessary moves to meet his contract requirements.
Then they didn't.
Johnny's warts are not unknown to the rest of the league. I'm sure some teams were asking the same questions
- Should we devote that much cap to a winger
- Should we make a 7 year high cap commitment to a player at that age
- What production will Johnny deliver going forward. Something close to last season or the 2 seasons prior
- Can he deliver in the playoffs.
At the end of the day the Flyers decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. So that took away the major seat Johnny thought he would land on. And with the music coming to an end, his agent told him to plant that butt on a chair before there were none left.
And that chair was CBJ.
The only flaw in this theory is I still can't grasp what the heck happened with New Jersey and why that isn't where he went.
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I still don't get why he had to sign on July 13. Are the chairs gone? If he didn't get Philly doesn't that give him the chance to scope the entire United States? He could still be negotiating today with a lot of teams. I always thought Seattle was a sneaky contender for him. In a few years he could be playing with Berniers and Wright.
The contract he signed is panicky and sloppy. No signing bonus, no frontloading.