Seravalli: Gaudreau has informed the Flames he will not return

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by Royle9

It's not mom.. its his wife and their kid on the way.
I take it you're not married nor have kids? Not a jab, just a serious question.

There's nothing stronger than a women having their mom around when a baby is born. I can almost certainly tell you that the biggest decision was keeping his wife happy and close to her parents.

This. Especially with the amount of time hockey players spend on the road. If Johnny is not there and family and friends are on the other side of the continent, it can be very intimidating for a woman having her first baby. The support of family is always important with a newborn child, but even more so when the father is on the road so much of the time. Yes, you can hire a nanny, but that's not the same as having your own mother there to support you.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Royle9

It's not mom.. its his wife and their kid on the way.
I take it you're not married nor have kids? Not a jab, just a serious question.

There's nothing stronger than a women having their mom around when a baby is born. I can almost certainly tell you that the biggest decision was keeping his wife happy and close to her parents.

We flew my wife’s mom in.

Planes are a thing.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by greyshep

Slept on this news, still woke up pissed off at Johnny for taking this to the last second and leaving the Flames in the worst possible position.

At this point he is getting boos from me.

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Thought Johnny would've individuated from mom and dad enough at this point tbh.

On one hand its good to honour your family and consider them, but on the other Gross said it was a family decision, and at 29 you can't have mom influencing your decisions any more. He's an adult and has the ability to make his own decisions and it looks like he went to his parents for approval and obviously mom would prefer him being closer.

That and leaving it to the last minute strikes me as kind of an immature handling of this whole thing.

That's an immature response for someone you're calling out as immature. Who's to say that he just really wanted to go elsewhere? And I know we assume it's out east, but until he does sign, it could be anywhere on this continent still.

He's fully in his right to do whatever he wants since Flames don't retain him rights anymore. He made both a personal, and business decision. Johnny didn't do anything wrong here.

Hopefully Flames/Brad learn their lesson from this, and become a lot more business oriented, and make decisions that's best for the organization since they need to look out for their own interests; just as much as Johnny and other players do. Flames taking on a more pragmatic New England Patriots approach is ideal. Secure their assets, or extrapolate them for returning value if the security is in question.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by activeStick

All I know is the next legitimate super star who stays in Calgary his whole career is going to get a statue of him made in the city considering what the franchise has gone through.

Iggy and Lanny deserve statues

[dustygoon]

Flip the script. Who here wouldn't have PAID the rumoured 1st + Konecny, etc for this one year of Johnny we just got and the run we had? Odds didn't fall our way, but we were right there. It was worth keeping him.

[manwiches]

Originally Posted by Goriders

We flew my wife’s mom in.



Planes are a thing.

We did too for our second.

I can empathize with both sides.

I already stated what I would have done in his shoes earlier (play 8 here, sign a retirement contract in east coast, cement legacy). But that's me. Despite how close we are with our families, my wife and I are different than the Gaudreaus.

As noted, father w health issues, new baby, close knit family, among other things... I really don't fault the guy. It must have been a brutally difficult decision he wrestled with for a while.

When we entertained the offer to move for my work, my wife and I agonized for weeks. We negotiated, thinking they would never meet our requests or demands. When they did tho, we did opposite of Johnny, and felt if we had turned it down, it would have been negotiating in bad faith, and I likely would have had to leave my company.

Sent from my SM-N975W using Tapatalk

[DJones]

Last years run turned out to be a curse. Should have traded him at the deadline.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Thought Johnny would've individuated from mom and dad enough at this point tbh.

On one hand its good to honour your family and consider them, but on the other Gross said it was a family decision, and at 29 you can't have mom influencing your decisions any more. He's an adult and has the ability to make his own decisions and it looks like he went to his parents for approval and obviously mom would prefer him being closer.

That and leaving it to the last minute strikes me as kind of an immature handling of this whole thing.

I think it might have had more to do with his wife being pregnant and wanting to be closer to family than his parents wanting him to come home. I think they would have been fine with him deciding to stay.

[NOISIA]

Originally Posted by DJones

Last years run turned out to be a curse. Should have traded him at the deadline.

Never understand this logic, I’d rather have the run then a 1st and prospect, but hindsight….right….

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by Goriders

We flew my wife’s mom in.

Planes are a thing.

You're not wrong.
But that would assume that his wifes parents want to live in Canada long term.
The entire family (both sides) are from the east coast NJ/PHI area.

Family is very important.

Having 2 young boys myself, we are VERY VERY fortunate that both pairs of grandparents are within 20 minutes of our house. Both are watched my by mother inlaw every weekday whilst the wife and I work.

So while its easy to say "fly them in" I can guarantee you they (Johnny and wife) decided they would rather raise the family out east where everyone can be there and Johnny can be around the kid(s) more with an easier travel schedule.

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by Joborule

That's an immature response for someone you're calling out as immature. Who's to say that he just really wanted to go elsewhere? And I know we assume it's out east, but until he does sign, it could be anywhere on this continent still.

He's fully in his right to do whatever he wants since Flames don't retain him rights anymore. He made both a personal, and business decision. Johnny didn't do anything wrong here.

Hopefully Flames/Brad learn their lesson from this, and become a lot more business oriented, and make decisions that's best for the organization since they need to look out for their own interests; just as much as Johnny and other players do. Flames taking on a more pragmatic New England Patriots approach is ideal. Secure their assets, or extrapolate them for returning value if the security is in question.

TBH I think Johnny's wife getting pregnant was what threw a wrench in the works. Perhaps neither the Flames nor Johnny were anticipating this happening so soon. Maybe he was planning to return, but when his wife found out she was pregnant, she told him she wanted to move closer to home, especially given the once in a career opportunity they have to do this now. This would not have been the case in the off-season, unless Johnny and his wife were planning to have a baby right away, in which case they should have considered requesting a trade last year to where they wanted to be. Of course, the way many people feel changes when their circumstances change, and not necessarily in the way they expected.

If the Flames were to consider all possible outcomes like this, they would have to trade away all players on maturing contracts who were from out of town. I mean, you never know when a couple might have a baby.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by Joborule

That's an immature response for someone you're calling out as immature. Who's to say that he just really wanted to go elsewhere? And I know we assume it's out east, but until he does sign, it could be anywhere on this continent still.

He's fully in his right to do whatever he wants since Flames don't retain him rights anymore. He made both a personal, and business decision. Johnny didn't do anything wrong here.

Hopefully Flames/Brad learn their lesson from this, and become a lot more business oriented, and make decisions that's best for the organization since they need to look out for their own interests; just as much as Johnny and other players do. Flames taking on a more pragmatic New England Patriots approach is ideal. Secure their assets, or extrapolate them for returning value if the security is in question.

I'm not saying your wrong, but I'm also someone who doesn't think this was miss handled. The result wasn't what we wanted, but as I said in a different post, I think Brad rolling the dice on keeping Johnny was 100% the right call given the team we had, and where Johnny is in his career. Just sucks it didn't work out.

To the bolded part. You could also look at it this way. This is a player who has been rumored to want to play close to home since before he was a Flame. Very family oriented, his mother cried when she saw how far away Calgary was, those type of stories. You could argue the people first way Brad and the team approach things actually got us almost 8 years of Johnny's services that we would have gotten otherwise. He didn't pull a Fox (and could have) and he didn't demand a trade at any point.

Calgary is not the Boston equivalent of the NFL. This is a tough market to attract talent too. I don't believe the Patriots / Golden Knights approach to asset management likely works as well in Calgary.

[PeteMoss]

Pavel Zacha traded to Boston.. that rando was right...

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Thought Johnny would've individuated from mom and dad enough at this point tbh.

He’s not leaving to be closer to Mom and Dad.

He’s leaving to be closer to Grandma and Grandpa.

THAT’S the difference.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by NOISIA

Never understand this logic, I’d rather have the run then a 1st and prospect, but hindsight….right….

I'd take the futures

[edn88]

I have no problem with Johnny going to New Jersey. The rules allow him to go wherever he wants when he reaches this point of his career. And I think that in 3 years he would be overpaid at $10M+. And I really don't think he is the player that Flames need to get over the hump to be able to beat Colorado.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed watching Johnny play hockey, but I don't want to have him on the roster when he is overpaid.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Johnny's dad has had heart issues the last couple years.

You never know with these kind of things.

If he wants to raise children and be able to see his family every week, can you really be upset about that? Have your kids grow up with your grandfather down the road?

Sounds pretty good. I can't imagine anything more important. Seems pretty mature to me.

That's a good point I had forgotten about. If you're close to your dad and he has health issues, it would be nice to spend as much time with him as possible while you can, and not be 300 km away.

[Azhouse]

I think Johnny will have a large drop off this upcoming season while the Flames will make the playoffs. Two second round appearances (with just 2 (?) wins in second rounds) in his 8 years here. Definitely not a playoff performer. I don’t really like the way he left last minute like that. The Johnny era is over, time to move on.

[Skaloper]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

He’s not leaving to be closer to Mom and Dad.

He’s leaving to be closer to Grandma and Grandpa.

THAT’S the difference.

Johnny is also smart to realize the Flames are going to have a hard time making it past McDavid + the Refs. Can't blame him for being smart and giving him the best shot at winning a cup in the next 7 years.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Thought Johnny would've individuated from mom and dad enough at this point tbh.

On one hand its good to honour your family and consider them, but on the other Gross said it was a family decision, and at 29 you can't have mom influencing your decisions any more. He's an adult and has the ability to make his own decisions and it looks like he went to his parents for approval and obviously mom would prefer him being closer.

That and leaving it to the last minute strikes me as kind of an immature handling of this whole thing.

Ugh....... I'm in my 40's with a young family, and I literally was influenced by what quadrant in the city I live in to optimize distance from extended family.

Your thought that a 29 year old shouldn't be connected to Mom and Dad lacks perspective.