Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Find actual citation for that.
Stone said after he signed the extension that he wanted to sign with Vegas, which is what you’d expect a guy to say. I don’t believe he actually said he unwilling to sign elsewhere, and I don’t believe there was any actual reporting saying he was only willing to negotiate with Vegas/wouldn’t negotiate with anyone else.
The Flames went to bed the night before believing they were acquiring (speculating) Stone (there was an interview with an AGM I believe who said they went to bed believing they had a deal done, but it had changed when they woke up). The rumours were Ottawa’s ask of Valimaki/Brannstrom, with Vegas willing to go there and Calgary not - and Vegas went there on the day of.
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It's all rumours but I heard they agreed to include Valimaki if Stone would re-sign which is why they thought the deal was done but then when discussions actually started with Stone on if he'd sign his ask was $10.5 x 8 and he wasn't willing to budge.
His ask for Vegas was a bit cheaper ($9.5M) and they could make it work where the Flames weren't able to (stupid Neal contract and Tkachuk being a pending RFA) to actually fit him in at anything more than about $8.0 - $8.5M.
TBH at the time Stone had only really been a Point per game player a couple times in his career, so $10.5M was pretty steep ask for that type of production in 2019.
Had they not stupidly signed Neal and left space open to make a big acquisition it could have worked but no real way to work that in with Neal on the books and Tkachuk a pending RFA.