Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
It makes sense if he thought he was leveraging to get more on Wednesday but it never materialized. Overplayed his hand or misread the room.
He only signed for 9.7 in Columbus because it was the highest left.
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But if its for leverage you never go to the media like his agent did and say "The Flames did all they could but it came down to a family decision"
That throws any leverage from the Flames offer out the window because you pretty much closed the door to him going back to Calgary.
It actually hurt his leverage because it made it seem like there was a smaller group of teams he'd even be willing to go to (there was a report that another NHL GM thought he wasn't willing to go anywhere outside of Philly / New York / Jersey so he didn't even reach out).
Also based on what Steinberg put out there and Gaudreau's note it does sound like there was at least a discussion of 7 x $10.5M from the Flames on the 13th...in that case he could have went to Columbus and said match Calgary's $10.5M or I don't sign, but doesn't seem like he even did that. Doesn't really seem like he used Calgary's offer for leverage at all.