The “wanted to sign last summer” part was tough, really does feel like the pregnancy changed everything here.
IIRC I had heard rumor that he was looking for around $9M and the Flames were offering closer to $7.5M.
Which I could see from both sides. He was 2 years removed from a 99 point season, on the Flames side they just had two rough seasons and Johnny was coming off pro-rated 68 and 72 point seasons…I feel like many would have thought $9M was an overpayment of that point.
Of course Johnny bet on himself and had an amazing season, and with hindsight the Flames should have jumped on 8x$9M if that was on the table but at the time it would have likely been seen as an overpayment.
|