[Signing] Sharks re-sign Kevin Labanc (1 year, $1 million)

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Icon

It is fun to assume he turned down an offersheet from Edmonton and signed with SJ at way less $.

But other than that it's still weird.

My guess is that for most RFAs it never even gets that far, and the standard response when other team calls is for the agent to politely say that his client is negotiating exclusively with his rights-holding club. Of course, whenever the Oilers call, the agent laughs and hangs up the phone.

[RedHawk12]

He probably really likes it in San Jose and really buys into what they're trying to do there. Wilson probably sold him on going for one more big run with Thornton and Marleau back in the fold and then paying Lebanc the big bucks after the season.

He's betting on himself a bit, but the options were probably something like sign 5 x 5M now and not have Thornton and Marleau back, meaning SJ likely regress, or sign 1M now with Thornton and Marleau back and sign 8x7M next off-season. Or something like that.

I'd think Tre takes a similar approach in negotiating with Tkachuk, although to a lesser extent in terms of the discount he takes. Sign 6x6.75M and not gut our depth, allowing the Flames to make a serious run in the next 4 years while we still have Gio, Monahan, Gaudeau, Lindholm, Backlund plus all of our depth...or sign 8x9M and force us to gut all of our depth.

[kobasew19]

If LeBanc ends up in Space Jam 2...

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

LeBlanc was RFA offer-sheet eligible, but I think this might help illumine a long established truth in the NHL: most players are simply not interested in exploring offer-sheets and would prefer to remain with their drafting team.

The twitter poster who said he got 1M also said no team contacted him. So I'm not sure if it's a long established truth in the NHL that most players aren't interested in offersheet and rather that most NHL teams aren't interested in exploring them unless under extraordinary circumstances (i.e. the chance to land a bonafide star). Best case scenario is you end up with a player another team didn't want to pay for, while losing draft picks, while breaking the gentleman's agreement (collusion) of not messing with RFAs.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

LeBlanc was RFA offer-sheet eligible, but I think this might help illumine a long established truth in the NHL: most players are simply not interested in exploring offer-sheets and would prefer to remain with their drafting team.

Fern LeBlanc or Jean-Paul LeBlanc?

Any relation to Kevin Labanc?

[calumniate]

Bodes well for the Tkachuk deal

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

They are saying they will give kids a chance. No pavs means more chance to put up PP points. He will have arb rights next year so it’s a bet on himself with a clear shot at improving stats.

It's quite possible 56 points could be his career high - not like he's betting on himself after a 30 point season.

Even if he improves from 56 points to 70 points it's not like it's going to make up for a 1 year $1M contract - especially with injury risk.

If he wanted to bet on himself he still would have signed for at least $3M for 1-2 years.

$1M for 1 year makes no sense under any circumstances. Every other GM in the league should have offered $4.2M for 1 year on an offer sheet.

I guess no other teams even contacted him...NHL GMs are useless sometimes. Opportunity to get a 50 point player for a 2nd round pick, nah why bother

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

It's quite possible 56 points could be his career high - not like he's betting on himself after a 30 point season.

Even if he improves from 56 points to 70 points it's not like it's going to make up for a 1 year $1M contract - especially with injury risk.

If he wanted to bet on himself he still would have signed for at least $3M for 1-2 years.

$1M for 1 year makes no sense under any circumstances. Every other GM in the league should have offered $4.2M for 1 year on an offer sheet.

I hear you. But he has no rights and a decent pile of younger players behind him that will happily fill that top 6 seat and potentially produce 50 if he doesn’t. Wilson can play hard ball. “We have $1mm. You want it or do you want to sit?” He had a good year but I don’t think he had much leverage.

[oldschoolcalgary]

i wonder if teams kicked the tires on an offer sheet for him.

the idea of 'bet on yourself' is fine... just he one million that seems extremely low imo... will he be overpaid to make up for the difference?

he's still a free agent... the restricted component simply allows SJS to match any offer or to receive compensation if LeBanc signed elsewhere... so it seems to me that he did have some leverage - he just elected not to exercise it.... not sure of the CBA; could have he reached out to other teams, even though he is a RFA?

[Robbob]

A team could have come in and offered him 1 or 2 years @ 1.35 and SJ wouldn't get any compensation, which is why this is a weird signing. Sure SJ would match that offer in a heart beat, but it LeBlanc is carrying all the risk here. He is SOL if he gets injured, because I don't think the Sharks extend the same courtesy if he was between a rock and a hard place.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

How much is he getting under the table?

The Mike Ilitch special.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

LeBlanc was RFA offer-sheet eligible, but I think this might help illumine a long established truth in the NHL: most players are simply not interested in exploring offer-sheets and would prefer to remain with their drafting team.

The long established truth is the obvious one IMO. Offer sheets don’t work because the current team has the right to match. And they always do.

UFA’s switch teams all the time for this reason.

[Strange Brew]

Unbelievable to me a player would take such a risk. Bet on yourself, fine. Sign a one year market value contract.

[SofaProfessor]

There has to be a handshake deal for something bigger down the road. That's the only way I can make sense of this. Labanc is taking a huge risk but, at the same time, if he shows some progression then he's just played his way into a very nice raise in just 1 years time.

[savemedrzaius]

Guy is just stupid. If they said they only had 1 million for him or you sit out for year then you sit out for the year.

If he gets hurt he's screwed. The team won't give a crap about him.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Free agent: the agent that negotiated Labanc’s deal.

A good agent should have been targeting a deal that gave him a commission approaching the size of what Labanc’s contract ended up at.

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Which offshore account is the rest being sent to?

[Hugh Jahrmes]

So if we're using points, that puts Tkachuk at a hair under 1.4M AAV?

Honestly, I think Matt is a player we want term with so maybe go long term and bump the AAV to 2.75-3.2M.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

This is a gentlemen's agreement or soft circumvention of the cap. There's an agreement place for a bigger money deal with term that he can sign when he's eligible.

There very well could be more to this for sure but this goes against everything we are seeing in current NHL economics where players are trying to lock in for as much money as early as possible for security. He's an American born player probably very happy to play in the bay area and possibly horrified of threat of being traded to a Canadian team so they could leverage that as well in an agreement. Still unless he went against his advice I would say his agent failed him pretty bad here as if for whatever reason he has a down or injury plagued season he's going to lose millions on this year and going forward could cost him on his next contract. It's hard not to admire a player ballsy enough to bet on himself but economically this is probably a poor decision by his camp. Or maybe as said above Wilson is going to take care of him next season and there's little to worry about for the player.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

There very well could be more to this for sure but this goes against everything we are seeing in current NHL economics where players are trying to lock in for as much money as early as possible for security. He's an American born player probably very happy to play in the bay area and possibly horrified of threat of being traded to a Canadian team so they could leverage that as well in an agreement. Still unless he went against his advice I would say his agent failed him pretty bad here as if for whatever reason he has a down or injury plagued season he's going to lose millions on this year and going forward could cost him on his next contract. It's hard not to admire a player ballsy enough to bet on himself but economically this is probably a poor decision by his camp. Or maybe as said above Wilson is going to take care of him next season and there's little to worry about for the player.

If he has a 25 point season just how much is Wilson going to make up to him? It seems like he left at least $1.5 million on the table here. This is not a Tom Brady taking a little less to help the team be competitive.

So he makes a $ 1 million in a high tax state in an area with an extremely high cost of living. This isn’t betting on yourself. You can do that and still make market value for a 1 year deal.

It’s hard to explain really.