Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Not really shady. He's a year from free agency and the opportunity to pick his team. Why should he sign in another city when Vegas wants him and he wants to play there? He doesn't owe the Flames anything and you can't fault a player for using their NTC to dictate where they land.
If Vegas doesn't have enough to offer then the Flames should just hold onto him until the trade deadline next season as he should fetch a decent return even as a pure rental.
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Okay, just to be clear here.
He has a NTC that restricts just 6 teams. That's it. It doesn't give him carte blanche to say "I will only negotiate with team X". Otherwise, that would be in his contract.
Secondly, yes, he's a free agent in a year....that's not now. Currently he's under contract and needs to abide by his terms. Of which, he does NOT have license to pick and choose where he lands.
The problem is that Conroy was trying to do right by the player, because he's a player's GM. He asked him where he would sign instead of just trading him wherever. Andersson has taken advantage of the situation to turn his 6 team NTC into a 30 team NTC, and that's not fair play, even if it's not technically wrong.
He wants to go to a contender by all reports. Fine. L.A. is in the playoffs every year, and perhaps the presence of Andersson would push them over the top and they could make a run.
Does he listen to an offer to sign in L.A. also a pretty cool place to live? No, not even considering it.
That says to me that Andersson doesn't think he has it in him to turn a team into a champion. He wants to be a passenger and get a ride on a team already built to win.
Well #### that and #### him. I'm sick to death of these players that talk about winning but don't want to work for it. He certainly didn't do much for the Flames when they were in the playoffs.
I'm trying to remain unemotional about this, but frankly, this rubs me the wrong way, especially after how much love this city and team have given to Rasmus.
You can say that players don't owe it to teams to do the right thing, but it will come back to bit them. Guess what will happen in the next CBA negotiation? A new rule that dictates something around zero contract extensions if a player is traded in the final year of a contract. The player has to go all the way to UFA status before he can re-sign with a team.
I should be a lawyer.