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Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
Not if Florida grants them permission to speak to the players, which Calgary should have demanded so they could complete their due diligence. Calgary granted Florida access to Tkachuk so they could do their due diligence and give a bottom-line number and contract details for the sign and trade. Or do you think the Flames negotiated the terms of the Tkachuk deal and Florida just accepted whatever was in that deal?
Not accurate at all. Teams do this all the time especially when there are conditions attached to the player or the player is a big-ticket item. Players have a lot of control where they can play these days, so the smart teams are making sure they are not trading for someone else's problem. You think for a second that Buffalo wasn't 100% certain that both the players they were acquiring in the Eichel trade were not on board with Buffalo? They had that verified and sewn up before that deal was agreed to.
Why would that be? If I'm trading for a player who has a year left on his contract, and they are in the negotiating window (which both players are), so long as I have permission from the team holding that contract, I can ask the player whatever I want and negotiate just as the team who owns their rights. This is how teams can trade for a player then have a contract done almost immediately. They've talked and have agreed to terms prior to execution of the trade. Walsh was pissed with Florida because the conversation never took place.
The reality of the situation is the Flames didn't ask. Huberdeau's agent disclosed that. They could have asked and been given permission, but that never happened. It's disturbing that you seem to believe there is this huge cone of silence where teams can't get permission to have conversations with players when they are on the table in a trade, or there are not other ways to get information on whether a player would be open to playing for your team.
Agents are back channels to players and can facilitate communication without tampering. How the hell do you think trades get worked out, especially those where NTC and NMC are involved? Teams talk to players through sanctioned means (permissions) or back channels (agents). You should be more concerned that these conversations didn't take place than worrying about how they do.
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LOL. Florida offers a package that's far and away the best possible - beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and Calgary is going to make demands about speaking to them, as opposed to grabbing the deal and running away before Florida can change its mind?
As for back channels - it's pretty clear that this soft tampering is greatly exaggerated. There was zero communication between Gaudreau and any other team prior to UFA - that's very clear. Doesn't appear that there was between Florida and Tkachuk. So either all these teams are incompetent or it doesn't happen like people here assume.