Gaudreau had the right to choose any team he wanted, but as others have stated, it is how he did it that is really egregious. That is all on Johnny. Not Brad, not his agent, not his wife.
The quotes after things broke down are really telling in my view. The Flames “were stunned”. They have been involved in hundreds of negotiations many which proved to be unsuccessful, it it is almost never stunning. In this case it was. Gross stated that the Flames did “everything that they could have done”. That tells me the Flames met the demands of Johnny and his agent. I think the Flames and it’s fans have every right to be bitter about that. I don’t think it is fair to say they were overly optimistic. They had a deal. They knew Philly wasn’t likely a player. They had the best offer to a guy that wanted to play here. That should be enough.
I negotiate contracts for a living. It is true that nothing is finalized until the paper is signed, but it is exceedingly rare for a counter party to just turn away from a deal like this. Johnny screwed the Flames and he screwed Gross. It is on him.
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From HFBoard oiler fan, in analyzing MacT's management:
O.K. there has been a lot of talk on whether or not MacTavish has actually done a good job for us, most fans on this board are very basic in their analysis and I feel would change their opinion entirely if the team was successful.
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