Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Where were these signs?
The trade happened on July 25th, and conversations would have started well before that.
Huberdeau still had a year left on his contract, and the very earliest that they could have started negotiations for a new contract were July 1st. Obviously, the GM is going to be very busy through the first couple weeks of July. So there would have been a small window of week or two at most for them to have started talks - and who knows? maybe they did.
You're going purely on hindsight and your own bias here.
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According to Walsh, he approached Zito at the draft about getting an extension done as soon as possible and Zito asked him to let him get through the 1st week of free agency first, then he would reach out to get the contract done. The Tkachuk news came out on July 20th. The next time Zito called Walsh was when the trade was made. That was right from the interview with Walsh after the trade. So even before it was known that Tkachuk was available, Zito wasn't exactly banging down the door.
I can't imagine that a GM would delay like that if they thought the player was integral to the franchise and the player was also aching to get it done. GMs do more than one thing at once all the time, so I don't think there is an excuse to go cold like that. Treliving for example, didn't stop all other managerial work while hammering out Huberdeau's contract.