Nik? said:
Bates said:
What a crock! The NHLPA will be able to do nothing with how a player is used. All these guys are professionals and have put a lot into getting where they are. You play them on the fourth line and in the press box for an extended time and I bet you will get a list of acceptable teams. No one likes to be embarassed.
Good luck ever signing another free agent again if you're not going to honor the spirit of a NMC that you offered to a player and then try to publicly embarrass them.
Dude you of all people should know that's horse poop.
Philly totally blindsided Carter before his NTC kicked in. Jagr and Bryzgalov didn't have any problems signing there.
Edmonton tried whatever they could to dump Souray, even sending him to the minors for a year. Eric Belanger and Ben Eager signed this past summer, Smyth couldn't wait to get back there, and nobody is talking about how poor Edmonton looks for treating Souray like dung.
The Rangers threw Redden on a bus 2 years into a 6 year contract. I don't think Gaborik or Richards give 2 hoots how they treated their big time UFA signing before them.
NJ basically forced Malakhov and Mogilny to retire by trading/sending them to the minors. Kovalchuk, a fellow Russian, didn't seem to mind signing there.
The Sharks signed Setoguchi and a day later trade him to Minny. I think San Jose will be alright attracting free agents and/or re-signning there own players.
Ottawa signed Kovalev. He was repeatedly booed, benched, tatterred and torn in Ottawa. Don't think Craig Anderson, or Kovy's buddy Sergei Gonchar are having much trouble there.
Carolina signed Thomas Kaberle and half a season in could not WAIT to jettison him. Tuomo Ruutu and Bryan Allen had no problems re-signing.
Our own Leafs signed Jeff Finger and he was ridiculed throught the GTA... we signed Armstrong, Connolly, Komisarek, Beauchemin, etc soon after.
I could keep going. And sure these instances aren't exactly alike, no 2 instances are, but it's complete horse poop saying "good luck signing UFAs if you treat one poorly."