Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts
If Brad signed Johnny to that contract after he looked like a shell of his former self, he would have been chased out of town.
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He didn’t look like a former shell of himself though, Gaudreau had a good season in 2021 minus that one stretch where he was playing with Monahan and Brett Ritchie. But the last 1/3 of the season is where management should’ve been paying attention, he crushed it as soon as he started to play Tkachuk and Lindholm.
That’s the thing, GM’s are paid to forecast. It’s not always going to be, see the stats and then make the decision. You have to know your player and from the sounds of it, he didn’t know Gaudreau at all until he hit 115. That’s finally when Treliving started to talk about money not being the issue, but by then, it was too late. Johnny wasn’t coming back for whatever amount of money.
Obviously in hindsight, It was critical the deal be complete in the offseason of 2021. But as I’ve said time and time again, Treliving’s biggest weakness is his talent evaluation. It usually rears its ugly head during the UFA period, but he just didn’t seem to know Gaudreau at all, because if he did, he would’ve realized he was worth the money. Offering “embarrassing” low ball offers at your franchise player is not smart. I wonder if that’s why the Gaudreau camp went from eager to sign to not even wanting to talk during the season.