Seravalli: Gaudreau has informed the Flames he will not return

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

Probably not, but it’s really the only logical option left. I don’t think anyone is saying she’s a bad person, she just has her own prerogative and sadly, it doesn’t jive with us. It’s actually understandable, she’s been here for what, a year? She doesn’t know anybody here, all her friends and family live out east, of course she’d prefer to go back especially pregnant and all. It’s really just the circumstance that’s screwed us over.

Johnny by himself though, seemed ready to sign on the dotted line. His ears perked up any time someone asked about him sticking around and breaking all team’s records. I’m very confident in saying that if Johnny found himself a Calgary girl, he would’ve re-signed a while ago.

So the real question is, how did no gal in Calgary sink their claws into Johnny? Surely there had to be one that was willing to take the plunge and take one for the team? The real blame should be on Calgary women. They had 7 years...FAIL.

It's not the only logical option.
Consider what else we know

- He is clearly close to his family including his parents
- His dad has had health challenges
- They have a new baby on the way
- He doesn't like flying

But nope - let's blame the woman.

Seriously we need to be better than this.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Its honestly nutty to me that someone who loves the game would pass up 8-10 extra million and a competitive team to please his wife when he will be retired before 40 and be able to do anything at that point anyways.

I don't think he put himself first with this decision, when it was his to make. Call it considerate or whatever, but people and women respect men more when they stand their ground in respect to their career and passion.

Just my slant with what limited knowledge we have.

God forbid a man consider their wife's preferences in a major life decision.

[OmegaV4]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Yeah, it's stupid. It's fine to be disappointed, but I don't get why some people are trying to make it personal.

We have to understand that everyone grieves a loss in their own way. In this case, those that are attacking the Gaudreau family are the ones that are hurt the most.

But seriously, leave the family out of this.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Let's not forget that Guy Gaudreau also had some heart issues and was operated on (forgot exactly what the operation was). I am sure that was quite a scare for Johnny - as it would be to anyone.



There is ZERO wrong with liking your family and enjoying your time with them. Good for him in choosing that. There are things that money can't by you, and if you family makes your quality of life better, then who can build a legitimate argument against Johnny's decision? I can't. It was his decision to make for his own reasons.


As a Flames fan, I can be disappointed.
As a human being, I am happy for him in being able to make choices to improve his life.

[jeffmacrealtor]

Sorry guys I'm not a usual poster (years actually) so I apologize for being an interloper in your discussion. I thought I would lurk today but decided to spew an opinion.

This is going to sound like I'm Don Cherry but to me it's time to consider not drafting Americans anymore. They all just leave as soon as they are 27. Tkachuk is not going to stay either.
Sounds a bit dramatic but I would focus on Western Canadian players who have roots here.

[Sec214]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

That was likely the case that the wife and parents ultimately determined this. Family decision remember. Over dollars even, as he won't get what he would've with the Flames

It's not blaming her, it's pointing out that he didn't exemplify the fortitude to put his hockey career interests above the interests of those around him.

Letting family decide the direction of your career isn't the actions of a strong man. And maybe Gaudreau just isn't that. Wherever he signed, he wasn't going to be kept away from his family at the end of the day. And its not like they've been suffering for the past 8 years.

Yikes. Terrible Take.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Does it make sense that a guy who is a superstar would want to move from a contending team to a non-contending team, AND for less money?

I mean the agent literally tweeted that the move was for family reasons.

You just answered your own question: it was for family reasons. We can question the rationale of his choice all we want but it’s obvious he wants to raise his family closer to home and other family. Not much you can do about that

[Torture]

Originally Posted by jeffmacrealtor

Sorry guys I'm not a usual poster (years actually) so I apologize for being an interloper in your discussion. I thought I would lurk today but decided to spew an opinion.

This is going to sound like I'm Don Cherry but to me it's time to consider not drafting Americans anymore. They all just leave as soon as they are 27. Tkachuk is not going to stay either.
Sounds a bit dramatic but I would focus on Western Canadian players who have roots here.

Darryl, is that you?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Don't blame Johnny or his wife, blame the Flames for not building a true contender. That is the only advantage this city will ever have other than money.

Blame Flames management for gambling and losing. The writing was on the wall for a long time. They thought they could convince him to stay longer and we got one last good regular season out of it, so it wasn't a total loss, but the time to trade him was a couple of seasons ago.

Winning the Cup this year was the only way losing Gaudreau for nothing would have been acceptable, and I guess they thought they could do it.

[NegativeSpace]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I don't blame Gaudreau for making a family decision. And, being a family decision of course his wife has a say, maybe a big one. It happens. It's why Mike Stone is here, not that he's a guy who had a lot of choices, but what he had was affected by that.

I do think that he probably gave Treliving some incorrect signals by indicating he'd be willing to stay in the right deal (something he's consistently said for three years at least), negotiating on contracts last summer and then essentially saying, "nah, let's wait until next year, but then we'll get to work on one" and by negotiating until the last minute here. It sounds to me like he (or maybe Gross) were either trying to raise the dollar amount being discussed just to take to other teams or get Treliving to make some absolutely crazy offer, like 8x$12+.

To the extent there was risk in not trading him last summer, it still seems like it was acceptable risk, even in hindsight. Based both on the mediocre return and the one season results. Like someone said, he became a one season rental.

Just my take on things, but I think that the Flames were plan B for a while but he did not communicate that to the team. Instead, I think that he said all the right things and led the team to believe that he was willing to stay in Calgary long term. I suspect that Johnny was waiting for something to come along that would make his decision easy. The Flames completely make an outrageous offer - he stays. The Flames low-ball him - he leaves. The FA market low-balls him or he has no teams in the east - he stays. None of those happened.

In my view, he waited until the last minute to see if something would happen that would make his decision for him and he did not have to disappoint anyone. When that didn't happen (i.e., there is significant interest in the east at significant contracts and the Flames were making a significant offer) he was left with disappointing someone. I wish that he was honest with the Flames that they were plan B (the impression I got from Treliving's presser did not indicate that information was conveyed earlier as he seemed quite upset - just my impression before anyone argues). If Johnny did tell the Flames that they were plan B early, then I agree that it was an error not to trade him.

[AC]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

It's really not.

And it's fine if you think that. I don't care.

"people and women respect men more when they stand their ground in respect to their career and passion."

"Letting family decide the direction of your career isn't the actions of a strong man. And maybe Gaudreau just isn't that."

This stuff comes across as toxic and borderline incel-territory to me.

[NOISIA]

Going after the family is ridiculous.

[DeluxeMoustache]

So Johnny didn’t return to the team that the NHL situation room has on speed dial

Can’t win, don’t try. Lol

[Sec214]

I think it takes a MAN to walk away from 84+ Million to go where he wants to be

[Jimdon]

He's fully in his rights to explore other teams, he honored his contract. I personally have no interest in watching him play for anyone else and wish him no success whatsoever on his new team.

I'm a flames fan, not a gaudreau fan.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by jeffmacrealtor

Sorry guys I'm not a usual poster (years actually) so I apologize for being an interloper in your discussion. I thought I would lurk today but decided to spew an opinion.

This is going to sound like I'm Don Cherry but to me it's time to consider not drafting Americans anymore. They all just leave as soon as they are 27. Tkachuk is not going to stay either.
Sounds a bit dramatic but I would focus on Western Canadian players who have roots here.

I know people are not super rational right now the day after being jilted by Johnny, but let's take a step back here. So you'd rather the Flames not taken a chance at Johnny at all with the fear he may sign elsewhere 8 years later because he's American? Lets not forget, Johnny's a 4th round pick, so Flames could have drafted a plethora of different guys and taken a chance on them instead.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

You just answered your own question: it was for family reasons. We can question the rationale of his choice all we want but it’s obvious he wants to raise his family closer to home and other family. Not much you can do about that

Yes OK, so what is embarrassing about saying that his wife, mum, dad, etc played a part in the decision?

I would probably golf 3+ times a week if I didn't have a wife and kid. I might golf 3 times a month if I'm lucky during the summer. Is it "embarrassing" that I'm saying this? It's just reality.

[littlereddevil]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Don't blame Johnny or his wife, blame the Flames for not building a true contender. That is the only advantage this city will ever have other than money.

The Flames genuinely tried though to become a contender. We drafted Bennett, Tkachuk, Monahan thinking that they would be the right players for this team, and then brought in other pieces like Hamilton (and then Lindholm) and Markstrom to transform us into one.

It's not Flames management's fault that this team forgot how to play hockey against the Oilers in the playoffs and folded over like a cheap tent whenever McDavid was on the ice.

We tried, and things didn't go as planned. Time to learn from our mistakes, and hope that this team has a better vision of where this team needs to be to finally get over that playoff hump. If that means rebuilding and getting a new core, then so be it.

Remember that the Capitals for years kept their same core together, despite fan pressure to dismantle the team and rebuild the moment they faced some adversity in the playoffs, until finally they overcame that obstacle and won the Stanley Cup. There's a reason they say that this is the toughest trophy to win in pro sports. Sure Gaudreau won't be replaceable (and I'm going to miss how exciting games were when he played) but I'm trying to look on the bright side here, maybe he wasn't the right player for this team to turn them into a contender. Maybe it's time for other players to step up, or perhaps we'll go through a rebuild selling off our most valuable assets before it's too late.

[Enoch Root]

here's a thought...

when a post is that embarrassing, how about we don't quote it 20 times?

[Zulu29]

Wow…pretty shocked at some of the posts here essentially blaming Johnny’s family. I was pretty choked lastnight but after a night sleeping on it, I’m much less upset. The ONLY thing I don’t like about how everything played out was his side holding out hope that there was a deal to be done up until the 11th hour.

The person who I hold most responsible for this all is Lewis Gross. I can’t help but feel that he took some satisfaction in retribution for how Johnny’s last deal went. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if last summer Johnny had indicated he wanted to go home and Gross told him to wait it out, keep trotting out the “Calgary is great” lines and he’d get to pick his spot in UFA. Just my gut feeling.

Anyway, he’s gone now so it is what it is. Tre needs to take a hard look at Tkachuk though…