Quote:
Originally Posted by browna
Wading back into the "wife" situation, it really is the worst possible time for that family decision of where you plan to live and have your kids grow up the next 8 years, to be properly weighed.
She's midway through pregnancy of a first child. That is a huge mental stress and fear of the unknown for the next months, nevermind for the 8 years, probably pushed her towards familiarity and family as support, and a shorter plane ride and not dealing with customs and international travel for her or her family is more convenient on her side of it.
If this was child #2 or she wasn't pregnant at all, and that stress to her and John didn't factor into the decision near as much as it did as it is as a current situation, I think that either the original deal that fell apart the last minute, or even the comeback deal the next day, John could've convinced the wife to stay in Calgary for all the reasons he wanted to stay, nevermind the additional money.
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I agree that having a kid on the way very well might have been the dealbreaker; to speculate a bit further (as well as tie it back to the Gudbranson interview), Erik mentioned how during the season players are trained to be locked into the current moment and focus 100% on hockey. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnny was content throughout the season and into the playoffs thinking there was a good chance (if not a very good chance) of him re-signing in Calgary — especially given how successful he and the team were this year. It wasn’t until after the season ended — and having to deal with the reality and pressure and demands of becoming first time parents, that all of a sudden this decision wasn’t so simple after all, and that there now were a bunch of “good” reasons to leave Calgary.
As for Johnny being unhappy, I don’t think he was thrilled to leave Calgary but he still has 68 million reasons to be happy in Columbus. I also think the notion of him being dumb because he “left money on the table” is irrelevant to him at the end of the day — he has and will have more money than he and his family will ever need.
What’s evident though is that while he obviously didn’t choose the Blue Jackets for hockey reasons, he’s probably content with being in Columbus since that’s clearly where he wanted to be once July 13 came around and the offers started coming in. There are worse cities to live in, and him having a close friend and young father in Gudbranson there for the next four years was probably a big selling point (I didn’t realize they had a newborn and are also expecting another on the way).