In watching Gaudreau’s end of year after seeing Chucky’s posted the thing that stands out to me most is when he says regardless of what happens ahead here ‘I just want to be remembered as a good guy.’ This is pretty telling in a lot of ways to me because it can be read that he had his mind made up ahead of everything and he did truly want to play closer to home. With him saying that he wants to be remembered in Calgary as a good guy (which unfortunately right now isn’t the case for Johnny for many fans) it tells me that he didn’t want to appear to be the one wanting out. I don’t think Johnny thought that the Flames/ownership wouldn’t meet his demands but the problem was the flames were consistently meeting his demands. I think when the Flames met the supposed final ultimatum contract to a T and they went silent is when Johnny probably was the most torn through all this, the Flames called his bluff all the way to the 11th hour and unfortunately for him it damaged his brand in Calgary and going into UFA. It’s a fascinating yet painful series of events and I think honestly had Johnny been more open to the Flames camp and it would appear also to his own camp/gross then maybe he could have even ended up in Philly. I’m sure there was a deal to be had there a month ago heading into the draft but with how Johnny handled things the Flames thought there was a chance right up until they were dealt the bad news. Pretty immature way to see the whole thing unfold, gotta just move on now and try to build some sort of plan. Hoping Treliving can either pivot or accept that the core is done if Chucky starts heading down the same path as Gaudreau.
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