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

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Can we just close this thread already? Whatever happened behind the sccenes, who gives a crap. It's over. Time to move on.

It's clearly time to move on when the topic slides off the first page, not when I or a moderator close it and tell others to move on.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

*snip*when she found out he left she asked if he still wore #13... becuz that's her favourite number and she needed to find out if she now needed a new favourite number (ha!). then she asked it if was alright for her to still cheer for johnny and the blue jackets. obviously this was on her mind so much she even asked my wife last night, "mommy, are you sure daddy is ok if i still cheer for johnny? will he still love me if i cheer for both the flames and the blue jackets??"
we've done everything we can to reassure her that it's totally fine for her to keep cheering for johnny - but it's amazing to see how much one hockey player can affect a kid.

That’s great story, thanks for sharing that.

[cgy-sk-import]

I wonder if Meredith was at the press conference instead, she may have been able to better answer the questions. Because honestly, Gaudreau looked and talked like he had just gotten off the plane and said "OMG WAIT, THIS ISN'T WHERE WE PICKED IS IT???"

[CaptainCrunch]

You know, I'm not mad or sad or whatever about this. To me, its just a game.



However from a pure business standpoint, John and his agent are clown shoes. They dragged this thing on, the Flames it sounds like offered them everything that they wanted, and John moved on. Fine, though it feels like they unintentionally screwed the Flames organization.


His line near the end of the press conference, made it sound like he had some kind of bone to grind. He could have said nice things about the organization that adopted him and the fan base that adored him despite his warts. But instead he had to leave a hanging statement. Basically its not me Johnny superstar, its you.



I hope that the Flames treat John coming back as a non event, no tribute video at all. I don't think the fans should boo him at the start, but everytime he touches the puck. I hope Sutter's game plan is operation run John out of the building via the boards.


Basically screw him and his idiot agent. The Flames will move on, and though there might be painful days ahead, the Flames will go on.



Hopefully, John fades into obscurity in Columbus, and has a 60 point season and becomes remembered as not only an idiot with an idiot agent. But one of the worst contracts in the NHL.


Bile released. And as for Edwards getting involved. I'm fine with it. He probably held off getting involved until Midnight and after talking to Brad they realized that John and his agent were screwing around and handicapping the team.



I hope that John's return to Calgary is physically and emotionally painful. That is all.

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Can we just close this thread already? Whatever happened behind the sccenes, who gives a crap. It's over. Time to move on.

Absolutely not. The sassy and snarky comments because of hurt feelings, the borderline slanderous accusations, the blame placing on family for forcing poooe Johnny to leave, I love it. I need more gossip about his time here and his alleged problems, speculation on why he left, this is gold. What else is there to talk about?

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Absolutely not. The sassy and snarky comments because of hurt feelings, the borderline slanderous accusations, the blame placing on family for forcing poooe Johnny to leave, I love it. I need more gossip about his time here and his alleged problems, speculation on why he left, this is gold. What else is there to talk about?

He always hated that big blue ring.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by DinnerDog

Isn't it reported that Gross called Jarmo and he was kind of shocked? Don't think the bolded is true.

From the Athletic

The Blue Jackets had Gaudreau at the top of their wish list, and they extended an offer shortly after the window opened at noon Eastern.

Many expected Gaudreau to sign with a club close to his family home in New Jersey. Philadelphia, the New York Islanders and New Jersey were seen as favorites. But by mid-afternoon, the Blue Jackets were alerted that they were very much in the running.

https://theathletic.com/3422168/2022...kets-contract/

So that call everyone is talking about was a call from Gross telling Jarmo that the offer he made early in the day was being seriously considered. And Jarmo was shocked because he thought one or more of the New Jersey area teams would have made a bigger offer by that point.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Absolutely not. The sassy and snarky comments because of hurt feelings, the borderline slanderous accusations, the blame placing on family for forcing poooe Johnny to leave, I love it. I need more gossip about his time here and his alleged problems, speculation on why he left, this is gold. What else is there to talk about?

We should take this energy and see if we can use it to run a current player out of town. Really test the limits of our power.

[TheIronMaiden]

I understand how fans are frustrated and disappointed, but I am amazed how many people feel personally attacked and defensive about the city over this.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I would bet that if he had just come out at the end of the season and said that for family reasons he was going to test free agency and was hoping to be closer to home somewhere back in the NE, he would be signed by Philly now and he would have left Calgary with good will and thanks for the many good years.

To all those saying that “he doesn’t owe the team or the fans anything”. This is indeed true. However - the above post is what a classy professional athlete would have done. Gaudreau is clearly not such. And the irony is that it would have worked out way better for him.

He deserves the vitriol he’s getting imo. He probably doesn’t care that much tho

[heep223]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

I understand how fans are frustrated and disappointed, but I am amazed how many people feel personally attacked and defensive about the city over this.

I haven’t seen a single person signalling that they feel personally attacked?

[Monahammer]

Something not at all mentioned yet, but I am now thinking:

This furthers my belief that Monahan also intentionally dragged out his injury status this season until past the trade deadline. Monahan and Johnny are clearly still thick as thieves, and it was a very strangely timed incident. Seems like the bad blood between certain players and management might be real.

Interesting to note who was and wasn't at that dinner, for example. No Tkachuk, No lindy.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Something not at all mentioned yet, but I am now thinking:

This furthers my belief that Monahan also intentionally dragged out his injury status this season until past the trade deadline. Monahan and Johnny are clearly still thick as thieves, and it was a very strangely timed incident. Seems like the bad blood between certain players and management might be real.

Interesting to note who was and wasn't at that dinner, for example. No Tkachuk, No lindy.

Tkachuk was in Greece and I'm pretty sure the Swedes go home to fish.

[Heavy Jack]

Chucky looked to be on a family trip in somewhere with warm water and sun and Lindy was back home in Sweden as pretty much all the Swede contingent does. Don’t think there is anything there with Mony and him dragging the injury out, I think honestly the flames should have elected to accept the surgery route earlier but they would have needed the player thinking that way too and Mony played through both hips until he couldn’t anymore.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Tkachuk was in Greece and I'm pretty sure the Swedes go home to fish.

Yeah, fair. I know you're right about the swedes as there have been a few lindy on a boat photos. Still seemed like a bit of an odd group.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Azure

Edwards being involved at all creates a strange vibe for the entire organization. Why have a GM at all if the owner is going to deal with players directly?

That's the norm with high profile free agents, the owner will be part of the discussion for sure when $80M contracts are being handed out.

IIRC when Stamkos was being pitched by the Leafs they had the MLSE group, Mayor John Tory, and the CEO of Canadian Tire (which should been considered cap circumvention but anywho)

There are reasons to not like Murray Edwards...him being involved in the Gaudreau contract talks are not one of them

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

Earlier in the thread, I jumped to conclusions and assumed that Gross messed this whole thing up for Johnny. I'm inclined to retract that speculation. It's sounding to me like Gross did his best after being put in a tough situation.

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If your client can't make up his mind it makes an agent's job much more difficult. Player takes until the 11th hour to decide which is his right but the agent has to go along with it so even he may have taken some flack from Edwards for essentially just doing his job.

Or...Gross negotiated the deal knowing full well that JG hadn't made up his mind, didn't make that clear to Tre - and JG didn't man up and make it clear either - so Tre continued to operate on the assumption and the reality that he was "signable" with the right dollar amount.

JG's own words in the Columbus intro put paid to that...as he said he'd thought about it for a "long time" and "put it on his list". That's disingenuous and acting in bad faith..and his agent should have known better and acted in a professional manner.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

Don’t think there is anything there with Mony and him dragging the injury out, I think honestly the flames should have elected to accept the surgery route earlier but they would have needed the player thinking that way too and Mony played through both hips until he couldn’t anymore.

I think this is the same point though. A team with a good relationship with one of its' main offensive contributors would be able to convince them to do what's best for the team and go on LTIR prior to the trade deadline. This really leaves only two options:
- Either our management/ medical staff were incompetent and didn't realize the impact that sitting Monahan could have both for cap acquisitions at the deadline and ensuring that the player is healthy long term

or

- They realized all of this but the relationship with the Player is so poor that the player chose to willingly ignore this advice until a time when there was very little benefit for the team.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

From the Atlantic:



So that call everyone is talking about was a call from Gross telling Jarmo that the offer he made early in the day was being seriously considered. And Jarmo was shocked because he thought one or more of the New Jersey area teams would have made a bigger offer by that point.

There is a good lesson there actually. You miss on 100% of the chances you don't take. You have to take a swing at everything.

I made both those quotes up.

Seriously though, it drives me nuts when a player is available and people are say don't bother because they will never sign here, etc.... Or don't make a contract offer to a player, because another team will just match. You just do it, and then see what happens. I wonder how many teams never made JG an offer because they just assumed that they had no chance.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

I think this is the same point though. A team with a good relationship with one of its' main offensive contributors would be able to convince them to do what's best for the team and go on LTIR prior to the trade deadline. This really leaves only two options:
- Either our management/ medical staff were incompetent and didn't realize the impact that sitting Monahan could have both for cap acquisitions at the deadline and ensuring that the player is healthy long term

or

- They realized all of this but the relationship with the Player is so poor that the player chose to willingly ignore this advice until a time when there was very little benefit for the team.

Or a guy that was playing hurt kept his mouth shut because he didn't want to get shut down for the season.