I think those who criticize a GM should say what should have been done instead. But you’d have made Gaudreau around the 10th highest paid player in the league when it looked like he’d peaked 2 seasons before?
Tkachuk wanted $9M at least, hence his QO season number.
I’m not criticizing the move, so I don’t have to say what should have been done.
Gaudreau would not have been the 10th highest paid player in the league at the number I had, he might have been somewhere in the 20th-30th. Even then, that would've been a max number, If it was me, I would've tried to get him somewhere in the $8.5M-$8.75M range with considerable signing bonuses.
Ultimately, I had predicted that Gaudreau would be a 100 point player prior to start of the 21-22 season, so naturally, paying him in upper echelon of players wouldn't have been an issue for me anyway regardless if his number started with an 8 or a 9. Ditto for Tkachuk. Superstars typically aren't the ones that burn you, it's always the guys in-between that you have to be careful about. One or 2 bad albatross contracts hurts way more than overpaying a few extra thousand for your franchise star(s).
It's tough to know without knowing what the exact asks were.
My thought at the time was under $8M they should re-sign him without hesitation, $8-9M ask it would come down to what the return was on the trade market for him, and $9M+ they should have traded him.
In the end I still feel like that would been the right approach...but more and more I think they shouldn't hand out any 8 year contracts to players 29 or older unless you are sure they are true elite players.
Yeah that's why I'm hesitant to bring up any numbers at all. Nobody knows the exact asks as you say, so anything I say can come off poorly to someone regardless of what I say.
All I know is, 2021 was the one shot the organization had and they blew it. Pat Steinberg even said it himself a couple weeks ago, a deal between the Flames and Gaudreau was close prior to the start of 2021, but for whatever reason, the Flames walked away from it and nothing has been the same since. The trajectory of this team would look a lot different today than what it currently is heading towards right now.
Gaudreau would not have been the 10th highest paid player in the league at the number I had, he might have been somewhere in the 20th-30th. Even then, that would've been a max number, If it was me, I would've tried to get him somewhere in the $8.5M-$8.75M range with considerable signing bonuses.
Ultimately, I had predicted that Gaudreau would be a 100 point player prior to start of the 21-22 season, so naturally, paying him in upper echelon of players wouldn't have been an issue for me anyway regardless if his number started with an 8 or a 9. Ditto for Tkachuk. Superstars typically aren't the ones that burn you, it's always the guys in-between that you have to be careful about. One or 2 bad albatross contracts hurts way more than overpaying a few extra thousand for your franchise star(s).
Go look at salaries at the time. he’d have been around 10th.
Lindholm scores on the tip and the Canucks players go over to the guy who made the shot from the point instead of Lindholm. That combined with not picking him at the all star game is a little weird.
Lindholm scores on the tip and the Canucks players go over to the guy who made the shot from the point instead of Lindholm. That combined with not picking him at the all star game is a little weird.
Was it clearly tipped? Hard to tell in real time a lot of the time
