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

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

I think what’s confusing is how it came down to Tuesday. What about Tuesday night did it?

How do you go from “maybe Calgary” for a month to “any team but” in a night? Especially combined with the fact that he was researching other places over the past month, which is fine, but it wasn’t just “I’m going to see what else is out there tomorrow” it was “I’m not coming back here regardless of what’s out there tomorrow.”

It’s weird.

He seemed flustered and didn't seem that genuine or that happy today IMO.

I think it might have played out one of two ways:

1) In the end he was truly down to Calgary vs being closer to home / back in the US. It really was a tough decision that was 50/50 and he decided to leave which they thought were best for his family.

Somebody made the point of COVID and travel restrictions and maybe they just thought that with a young kid they didn't want to risk family not being able to come up to Canada or being stuck if things locked down again.

But I think he thought Philly would be the location and that the offers would better but in the end that didn't pan out and now he's kind of flustered because he just took the next best option which was Columbus and left more money than he anticipated on the table.

2) That the plan was to come back to Calgary and they were just doing what Gross always does and playing it to the last minute but something changed.

Something does feel weird with how he was talking about Calgary and the organization, he's never struggled to say good things about the organization and city in the past but today he seemed torn and flustered. His family spoke more favorably on twitter.

I feel like something might have went sour and ruined negotiations on Tuesday night.

Just a gut feeling but man it feels like nobody is truly happy with how this all ended. Not the Flames, Not Gross, and Not Johnny

[Azure]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Leaving this here:

“Calgary has been a second home to me,” Gaudreau said. “I love playing there. I love my teammates there. I love the city. The fans are awesome. It’s a team that I could see myself playing for for the remainder of my career, and I’ve always said that. I know a lot of people have speculations of me wanting to go back east, but I just feel really comfortable where I’m at — with the teammates there, the coaching staff, with Brad (Treliving), the management, the owners …
…

“Throughout my whole time there, I’ve been treated really well. I love the city. It’s been a blast playing there the past six years. It’s unfortunate we haven’t reached the end-goal that we’ve wanted in the past, but it’s been a second home to me. My family loves it there. My girlfriend likes being there. It’s a special place for us.”

Add in his comments about Columbus and its clear he was literally talking out of his ass the entire time.

Question is now, does Columbus believe a word he is saying? 2 years in he'll start bitching behind the scenes about stuff there.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

He seemed flustered and didn't seem that genuine or that happy today IMO.

I think it might have played out one of two ways:

1) In the end he was truly down to Calgary vs being closer to home / back in the US. It really was a tough decision that was 50/50 and he decided to leave which they thought were best for his family.

Somebody made the point of COVID and travel restrictions and maybe they just thought that with a young kid they didn't want to risk family not being able to come up to Canada or being stuck if things locked down again.

But I think he thought Philly would be the location and that the offers would better but in the end that didn't pan out and now he's kind of flustered because he just took the next best option which was Columbus and left more money than he anticipated on the table.

2) That the plan was to come back to Calgary and they were just doing what Gross always does and playing it to the last minute but something changed.

Something does feel weird with how he was talking about Calgary and the organization, he's never struggled to say good things about the organization and city in the past but today he seemed torn and flustered. His family spoke more favorably on twitter.

I feel like something might have went sour and ruined negotiations on Tuesday night.

Just a gut feeling but man it feels like nobody is truly happy with how this all ended. Not the Flames, Not Gross, and Not Johnny

Has he been heard from? I may have missed it.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

First of all, there is little doubt her opinion/desires/career were important, and part of the decision. I mean, obviously.

But the argument that he chose Columbus because there is a great hospital there is still a really weak one IMO - there is a great children's hospital in every big city (or at the very least, many). Would it have been a bonus? Sure, no doubt. But I doubt Gaudreau chose the Jackets because of a hospital in town.

You have no idea what his wife values or why. World class is important and not all hospitals are created equal. It’s ridiculous to assume her career opportunities don’t matter.

And frankly, if he put her needs first, good for him. Not even first, just equal with his own. He still got to be out east. Just because he’s an athlete he should dictate where they live? Maybe her having a fulfilling career as a nurse is just as important as him winning. And maybe it was the best decision for both of them because now he’s in the EC and she gets the best career opportunity available.

Sounds like a solid marriage to me. Weird some people want to frame it that she manipulated him.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

I think the press conference leads me to believe that Johnny wanted to stay. His wife didn't and he can't throw her under the bus. But he talks about "we" and "best for us". That's why the squirming. That's why the changing of minds. I think he really wanted to come back, but ultimately they made the decision together.

Why Johnny wife wanted out is anyone's speculation. But she must have really hated someone in Calgary. Maybe the ghost of johnny's past. Maybe some of the wives. Maybe some of the players. Maybe some of the exes.

Johnny probably thought the money could convince her to stay. But it didn't. She wanted to start a new life together. anywhere else but Calgary

Yeah, looking back at Johnny’s post season presser, nothing screamed player wanting to get the eff out of Calgary. He truly loved it here.

But it also can’t be easy for the wife to move to a new city on the other side of the continent, no friends, no family. She has to live here more so than her husband does who gets to travel and leave town on fun road trips and be around teammates all the time.

Maybe she was lonely and bored all the time to the point where she couldn’t stand it here. I can see understand why wives have a such huge influence on where their husbands play, happy wife = happy life right?

[greentree]

Originally Posted by SmoggyFlamesFan

The media portrayal of the flames or most NHL team is through rose coloured glasses. They want to sell a product, and give you lip service as to what you want to hear. They're going to tell the public scripted lines to have hopeless optimism, but we'll never get the full picture.

They knew, they just didn't want fans to know. At the same time, if Johnny played it off like he was on the fence, but knew for a long time he wasn't coming back, that's on him, and his character. Lost all the respect I had for him yesterday.

Sports reporters covet one thing above all else: Access. That's why they rarely provide "the full picture."

[Redlan]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Knowing nurses in Calgary, they hate working for the AHS. Many of them quit or burnt out last year. Combine that with an adversarial relationship with Kenney and Covid, the system is in shambles and is a terrible place to be in from what I heard over the last two years. Many nurses I talked to want out of Calgary and the AHS is backfilling them with lower quality outsourcing/contractors which sucks for both patients and those who care. My dad almost died last year because an outsourced floor nurse doing night rounds didn't check his vitals.

The hockey analogy would be that working for the AHS is like playing for the MacT Oilers while your facility is that of the Coyotes.

The other thing to note is that Gaudreau's wife Meredith is trained and licensed in PA and Canada is notorious for making it difficult to transfer medical credentials from other countries. It will be much easier for her to work and build a fulfilling pediatric nursing career in Columbus.

As an RN from the US that appears not to be an issue, non-US that is definitely the case.
https://rnforce.net/with-us-rn-you-c...20ten%20years.

Regarding the first part of your post you are somewhat correct but a bit misleading. The biggest issue is retention of younger nurses and it is strain on the workforce.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

https://sport-net.org/are-nhl-signin...to-escrow/amp/

They are not subject to escrow, that is why players like them.

I love those weird search engine sites...it answered another important question that google must have predicted people wanted to ask:

Is escrow a good job?

The description and job duties and of an escrow assistant may seem somewhat daunting, but, it can be a really fun job, especially when you get to help people achieve their dream of buying their first home.

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

I thought they weren't now.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nhl/...p1a8v24yvggd3v

Not sure if the loop got closed on this in the last few hundred posts, but here is direct from the CBA:

(i) Each Club shall withhold from each Player who is party to an SPC with
that Club (and current Players who retire or otherwise cease playing in the
NHL to the extent such Players continue to be paid under an SPC with that
Club, including, without limitation, Players who were party to SPCs that
have been bought out) an amount of each payment of the Player's Player
Salary and Bonuses for that League Year. The amount of each payment to
be so withheld shall be calculated by multiplying the portion of each
Player's Player Salary and Bonuses to be paid during a pay period by the
applicable Escrow Percentage that is then in effect during that pay period.

Pretty clear. As I said, I went through the MOU and didn't see anything that changes it, but maybe I missed it.


This article quotes the same (or similar - it's essentially repeated a few times in different parts of the CBA) paragraph...then paraphrases its own summary paragraph with contradictory and uncited info:
https://hockey-graphs.com/2018/03/07...s-really-make/

Teams withhold the specified amount of a player’s cumulative salary and bonuses in each pay period (players are paid on a bi-weekly basis, which equates to 12 paychecks a season), that is calculated by multiplying a player’s earnings by the applicable escrow percentage for that period. Escrow is not directly deducted from a signing bonus payment though, the amount due from those bonuses is taken off salary payments throughout the season.

I'm not sure how they arrived at the last bolded sentence, but they still go on to say that a player's total compensation will still be subject to escrow eventually...I doubt it is actually done that way though, because there are a few examples where it would be really messy:

$7,040,000 SB of Tavares' $7,950,000 total salary last year. 17.2% escrow of that total is 1.6082M - nearly double his $910k base salary.


The only delicious conspiracy theory I can think of is that the owners didn't care because it didn't affect their bottom line (with linkage) since it's really just a pie-division issue for the players...but they'd have an amazing grenade to throw into the PA during the next bargaining by pointing out how much non-SB players have been subsidizing guys with big SBs.

Imagine if it was just 17.2% off Tavares 910k = $156 520. That leaves $1.45M for his brethren to cover. It starts to add up pretty fast when you add Matthews, Marner, Panarin, McDavid, Barkov, Karlsson, etc.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Yeah, but if the team had a good psychologist on staff, they would have seen right through that lie and known Gaudreau had no intentions of re-signing.

[looooob]

never thought I'd post this link on a Flames forum, but here we go


Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus indeed is an excellent pediatric hospital, but I know somewhere else with a good Children's Hospital (spoiler see numbers 7 and 17)


https://www.newsweek.com/worlds-best...022/pediatrics
(*and yes I realize that I may not be contributing to the reasons why a US trained nurse might pick one over the other, just defending a little charming building in our backyard)

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Seems like the decision was based on lifestyle.

One year of his salary and realistically he wouldn’t have to work again.

Lifestyle is fine, but it doesn’t explain why. Nothing of the deal seems to be optimized for the player. Narrowing the window when you get the most money to make any future decisions easier and give more flexibility in a team trying to trade him to a suitable location if desired would be things that I’d figure would be part of a lifestyle contract. But instead it feels like a deal that was made in a panic and the conditions and details were glossed over to get something signed.

All the disappointment or anger or whatever aside, this is a surprising deal not just because it was with Columbus given all the assumptions and predictions, it’s surprising in large part because of how good of a deal it is for Columbus. I just keep coming back to it being a major miscalculation by Gaudreau’s camp on getting the most for the player.

[2macinnis2]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

You have no idea what his wife values or why. World class is important and not all hospitals are created equal. It’s ridiculous to assume her career opportunities don’t matter.

And frankly, if he put her needs first, good for him. Not even first, just equal with his own. He still got to be out east. Just because he’s an athlete he should dictate where they live? Maybe her having a fulfilling career as a nurse is just as important as him winning. And maybe it was the best decision for both of them because now he’s in the EC and she gets the best career opportunity available.

Sounds like a solid marriage to me. Weird some people want to frame it that she manipulated him.

My 2 cents as a physician who schooled and trained at a top US institution for my specialty: choosing Columbus so his wife could work at their hospital vs hospitals at any of the other cities discussed is more bonkers than this being a sane hockey decision (which it also is not).

[Firebot]

Gaudreau sure sounded like someone who just had the carpet pulled from under him and trying to save face with Columbus being a plan D.

This clearly did not go as he expected.

He's not happy to be in Columbus, no matter how he wants to sugarcoat it after the fact. Yes he called Columbus, but that was only after Philly officially ruled itself out. His options were not as expected and were fast closing up.

I feel that his wife most definitely had a strong part in how this transpired and he seems to have gotten some rather poor advise from Gross, with a last minute falling out on the Calgary side that irreparably severed that relationship.

He's made a pretty significant sacrifice to make her wife happy with this decision (whether it's due to Columbus having a great children's hospital or just wanting out of Calgary / Canada) but he really seems unsure if that's the right decision.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by 2macinnis2

My 2 cents as a physician who schooled and trained at a top US institution for my specialty: choosing Columbus so his wife could work at their hospital vs hospitals at any of the other cities discussed is more bonkers than this being a sane hockey decision (which it also is not).

Plus it’s (a) at least a year out with mat leave and (b) who’s to say they even hire her. I don’t know how good she is and if they are that good they have their pick.

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by OILFAN #81

The one in Columbus is ranked in the top 10 in the entire United States which is huge. Many agencies including the US News among a handful of others have backed that up. I'm not saying it is the only reason but it seems like it was one of the pieces that was important to him.

If only there was some news source that provides a ranking of these facilities. One that say lists hospitals in both the US and Canada. Perhaps such a publication would even list the Alberta Children's hospital in Calgary at #7 and the Nationwide Children's hospital in Columbus at #17.

https://www.newsweek.com/worlds-best...022/pediatrics

I think Gaudreau burned his bridge with Murray, found out the market was soft and had to settle.

In short he effed around and found out.

[Jore]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1547635912238018562

Got to be something to do have the wife. Friedman also said on the radio that Gudbranson signing in CBJ impacted Gaudreau going there. Bizarre sequence

[kyuss275]

I never thought about covid and travel restrictions as being a reason to leave. Now thinking about it that probably played a huge hand on this if there is another pandemic that causes restricted air travel between USA and Canada. Especially with a new born on the way.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by looooob

never thought I'd post this link on a Flames forum, but here we go


Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus indeed is an excellent pediatric hospital, but I know somewhere else with a good Children's Hospital (spoiler see numbers 7 and 17)


https://www.newsweek.com/worlds-best...022/pediatrics
(*and yes I realize that I may not be contributing to the reasons why a US trained nurse might pick one over the other, just defending a little charming building in our backyard)

First, great to see the Alberta Children's Hospital so high on that list. Very impressive.

However, it may not be as simple as that. Perhaps, for whatever reason, JG's wife had unique opportunities at the Columbus hospital that weren't available in Calgary (specializations, personal relationships, who knows)?

Anyway, we're all just blindly speculating at this point. I will just echo others and say that if one of JG's most heavily weighted decision-making factors was his wife's career satisfaction, I fully support that (and think it should be celebrated, not derided).

[The Yen Man]

I still think it most likely came down to the wire even for Johnny. He probably kept flip flopping between staying or going. In hindsight, Treliving should have gave a harder deadline for Johnny to really decide, so I think there's a bit of fault on both sides. But at the end of the day, what's done is done and we move on.

Now that I've had a day to digest this, I'm looking forward to seeing how Sutter does without Johnny, but conversely, how Johnny will do on Columbus. This next season is going to be interesting either way, that's for sure.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Jore

https://twitter.com/user/status/1547635912238018562

Got to be something to do have the wife. Friedman also said on the radio that Gudbranson signing in CBJ impacted Gaudreau going there. Bizarre sequence

So insulting IMO

Especially after constantly saying he would like to play his whole career in Calgary and then taking $15 million less to go to an even worse also-ran organization in Columbus.

Like I said, Philly or Jersey or even the Isles/Rangers I could get.

Hell, even Florida or Tampa (if they had space) I could get, actual contenders, east coast and beauty weather.

But Columbus? Gimme a break