[Signing] Gaudreau to Columbus (7 x $9.75 million)

[Locke]

Originally Posted by dino7c

My god we dodged a 10.5x8 bullet

To a degree I've been banging that drum since the beginning.

It still hurts to be spurned like this, but man...8 years for a guy like him? At his age? With a Cap thats going to be more or less stagnant for a few more years yet?

And then Chucky?

That was an unenviable position for everyone.

[Jordan!]

This guy seems like a bit of a dummy listening to the Chiclets interview

[jg13]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

This guy seems like a bit of a dummy listening to the Chiclets interview

I mean in his last Chiclets interview he apparently tried to deposit something like a $250,000.00 signing bonus cheque into an ATM machine? Never been the brightest guy.

[Jore]

He's a hell of a talent but always has seemed to have maturity issues

[AndyM]

Like, like, ya know, like, umm, like, ya know, like.

Doesn't he have a communications degree?

[Lanny_McDonald]

Should have traded him while we had the chance?

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Should have traded him while we had the chance?

Jesus man. I am farrrr from a day to day Flames follower but it's pretty obvious that with the way the team was performing and it's potential that you gamble with the team that was built.

You gamble and lose sometimes - $%^& happens.

If he was traded, and The Flames don't make it past the 1st round imagine the blowback then..

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Should have traded him while we had the chance?

I wanted him traded last summer before his NTC kicked in.

But I didn't think the team was capable of putting up 111 points, dominating possession metrics and winning the division.

I was wrong. Tre made the right move.

It's easy to say now "we should have traded him" when we know that we lost in round 2 and Gaudreau left, but if someone with a crystal ball said last summer:

"The Flames will dominate possession stats, collect 111 points, win the division, Gaudreau will score 115 points in the process, Tkachuk will score 104 points.....but I'm not going to tell you how things go in the playoffs"

Are you really going to erase all that by trading Gaudreau before it happens, or are you going to want to see that team play 82 games and find out what happens in the playoffs?

[Lanny'sDaMan]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Very good description of him IMO

Probably why he had his best seasons under task master type coaches.

Imagine what he could do if he had the drive to push himself that hard. The talent is off the charts, the drive behind that talent is very lacking.

Most stars relish the opportunity to build a legacy with one team.

Clearly he just didn't cut the mustard.

[MRCboicgy]

Yep, he can enjoy that contract, in a city where he'll be less recognizable than the long-snapper on the local college football team.

[manwiches]

Can someone coles notes the interviews? I don't really feel like listening to the drivel.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by manwiches

Can someone coles notes the interviews? I don't really feel like listening to the drivel.

Ac:

Originally Posted by AC

Johnny's episode of Spittin Chiclets is out now:
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR...bi1jaGljbGV0cw

Interview starts at 37:15

I'll update as I listen:

Asked about reflecting on the BoA and what went wrong.
Thought "we" were the better team, but with Connor and Draisaitl were doing ridiculous things every night and missing their best Dman in Tanev. Says it still hurts because he thought they were a really good team and would pull that series win off.

Asked how many teams were actually in the mix for free agency?
3 or 4 teams he knew he wanted to play for. Columbus was high on his list obviously. Day of he was only talking to 2 of the teams and hadn't heard from Columbus so thought he was signing with a different team, until he heard from CBJ at 4pm and told his agent that he wanted to go to Columbus so try and get it done.

In terms of free agency day, are you getting calls from your agent constantly? How stressful is that day?
Says to be honest, he'd never want to do it again because it was so stressful. Suggests maybe it's because of the flat cap but he was surprised he was only talking to 2-3 teams. Said he was trying to get a deal done with the Devils until Columbus called.

Biz jokes he was surprised that news anchor didn't come after him. This one
Johnny laughs and says it was tough to watch.

Whitney asks how tough it was to leave Calgary. Adds he can't imagine it was easy to say no to their offer.
No it was really difficult. A lot of people think he was dragging Calgary along, but he thought about signing in Calgary or going to free agency every day for a month, flip flopping back and forth. It came down to literally the last day. "I love Calgary so much. It's such a great place to play and the fans are great but in that final few hours I thought it was going to best for me to just test free agency. It was a hard decision, but yeah it was a long month and it was one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life to let Calgary know I wasn't going to go back."

Was there one deciding factor on Columbus?
Hums and haws about the 3 guys he knows on the team, doesn't really answer.

Asked about the relaxed market of Columbus compared to Calgary.
Says he's heard Columbus fans are fun to play in front of, but obviously different than Calgary but thinks it will be fun...

Biz asks if Covid and the shutdown rules played a factor.
"No not really. Obviously it was tough with the whole covid thing in Canada getting family to come see us." Wasn't a huge deciding factor. "It was time for me to get a different change of scenery I think. We wanted to play a little bit closer out east and play a little bit closer to family and that was important to us."

Biz asks about the negativity from media members and Calgary fans about leaving and his decision. Were you expecting it and does it affect you deep down given what you've put into that organization?
"Yeah I didn't think I would get it as bad as I have, um, obviously I thought there was going to be some fans not happy, but I didn't think I was going to hear about it as much as I have. Um, and I get it I mean, you know, they're a very passionate fanba-- fan-- they have very passionate fans and um, and they love their Flames and the city of Calgary loves hockey so I understand it's been hard on a lot of people. But I still love that place, I was part of that organization for 12 years, played there for 8 or 9 years and the city was great to me every single time and it sucks having to leave but I wish them all the best and hopefully they can get over it soon here because it's a great place and I really did love playing there.

Asked if he expected him choosing Columbus to blow up as much as it did around the league, being the biggest free agent they've ever signed by far.
No, he didn't expect this at all. Everyone is texting him confused asking "Columbus?" Claims he did his research about the great neighbourhoods, golf, when flying home he'll be back in his bed by midnight instead of 4am like sometimes in Calgary.

Asked about Columbus being a good place with lots of former players still around.
Claims he kept hearing it's a "hidden gem". "Wow this could be a really cool place to play".

Asked about lack of Philly's interest given the obvious connection and assumption.
Repeats it'd always be cool to play for your hometown team, but they didn't have the cap space so he knew they wouldn't be an option.

Did you let your Calgary teammates know you were going to move on?
No.

You didn't talk to one guy?
No. 2 hours before I didn't know. "Half our team is in Sweden and I didn't really have the opportunity to. I just called Brad and at that point it was already 11 at night. It was pretty hard for me, it was pretty emotional. As I said I was there for a long time and it was pretty hard so I kinda just hung out with my wife that night and just tried to figure out who we were going to play for the next day."

Asked about the line with Lindholm and Tkachuk. Have you ever found chemistry like that?
Yeah it was a blast, everyone brought something unique to that line. Reminds him of playing with Arnold and Hayes that year in BC.

Asked about Darryl Sutter. Did you have a great relationship, did he ever get mad at you?
"I mean, he got mad every single day. It didn't matter who you were, 4th liner, 1st liner, scratch player. That's why I really liked playing for him. He expected the same out of everyone. He did a really good job with our team." Says he liked playing for him and he's a great coach.

Says when Darryl was mad, he'd walk out of the locker room and then you'd hear 10 seconds of #### being broken. Happened 2 or 3 times during the year.

Asked what Tkachuk said to him after Johnny signed in Columbus.
He was happy for Johnny, said Columbus reminds him of STL in terms of vibes. Wished they could still play together but said all the best and supper happy for him.

[greyshep]

Just strikes me as a guy that actively avoids confrontation in all things and has others do the tough stuff for him. As we have seen, not a leader or a guy you can expect to ride to a championship, so yeah I guess we are "lucky" we didnt blow all our cap on him.

However I still maintain the Flames have had years to pick up on this and have a lot of egg on their face for not moving him while we still had control rather than losing him for nothing. Terrible asset management.

[Manhattanboy]

What a bizarre turn of events.

Turns out our former superstar is a bit of a frosted flake.

[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Just strikes me as a guy that actively avoids confrontation in all things and has others do the tough stuff for him. As we have seen, not a leader or a guy you can expect to ride to a championship, so yeah I guess we are "lucky" we didnt blow all our cap on him.

However I still maintain the Flames have had years to pick up on this and have a lot of egg on their face for not moving him while we still had control rather than losing him for nothing. Terrible asset management.

Yeah it probably would've made sense to trade Monahan and Gaudreau after the Colorado loss. Could've gotten a decent return for both of them. Now, we lost Gaudreau for nothing and will probably have to pay to get rid of Monahan

[SportsJunky]

Originally Posted by Pizza

Anyone else catch that part where Johnny said “hopefully they can get over it soon”?

No Johnny, I wont get over it. I'll boo you til the end of your NHL Career

Forget about his career, I'll boo him until the end of time. If I see him at the grocery store I'm going to walk up behind him and boo. Quietly at first but it will grow increasingly louder until he must leave the store and explain to his frightened child why complete strangers hate him. Then, I will smile knowing that I have done well.

[Firebot]

The only way that Gaudreau could have handled it any worse in burning bridges with the Flames along with all the podcasts he's been doing, would be having the contract in front of him, about to sign, and shout out "Wild card b*****" both at Treliving and Twitter and jump out the window

This is worse then "The Decision"

[Cappy]

Jesus guys, can we just move on now. JG made his choice.

No need to go hang out outside his window with a ghetto blaster

[Knut]

Yeah... time to hope over the Tkachuk thread and doom scroll. This thread is doom-scrolled to death.

[SportsJunky]

Hey Cappy,