Reaction is pouring in from across the league today, ranging from utter shock to “I told you so” glee. OK, most of the “I told you so” glee is coming from Nashville, but it is there just the same. Pred Nation will get together and celebrate on the plaza at Bridgestone Arena at 12:30pm today prior to the 1pm press conference.
After the roller coaster ride of the past few days, culminating in yesterday’s announcement, I got to thinking about previous RFA’s whose rights holding team matched an offer sheet, keeping the player with that team. I did a little research looking back to 1994 and found the list was only 12 players long.
1994 Scott Stevens - This was the second time Stevens signed an offer sheet in his career, the first being very familiar to Pred fans as David Poile uses it as an object lesson. New Jersey matched the 4 year $17 million offer and he went on to win three Stanley Cups with the Devils
1995 Stu Grimson - Matched by Detroit where he remained until early in the '96-'97 season when he was waived and claimed by the Hartford Whalers.
1995 Keith Tkachuk - The 5 year, $17.2 million offer was matched by Winnipeg, however the Jets stripped him of his captaincy because of the contract squabble. He regained the “C” when the team moved to Phoenix the next season.
1997 Joe Sakic - Matched by Colorado, and the rest is history, the first ballot Hall-of-Famer won two Stanley Cups with the Avalanche, probably the best $21 million over three years the team ever spent.
1997 Mattias Ohlund - The five year, $17.5 million offer was matched by Vancouver, the offer included a $7.5 million signing bonus. He went on to spend the next 11 seasons with the Canucks before moving on to Tampa Bay.
1998 Sergei Fedorov - Matched by Detroit, he went on to win three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings. This one caused a LOT of outrage as Carolina
dared to drop an offer sheet on an O6 team. The offer was 6 years for $38 million.
2006 Ryan Kesler - Another Philly offer, 1 year $1.9 million that was matched by Vancouver and Kesler continues with the team as of this writing. You have to wonder what would've happened if the offer was big enough to make Vancouver walk away at that point...
2007 Thomas Vanek - Matched by Buffalo, he is still with the Sabres after signing that 7 year $50 million offer sheet.
2008 David Backes - His reasonable 3 year, $7.5 million offer from Vancouver was a no-brainer... matched by St. Louis, he has been named the Blues captain and remains with the team
2008 Steve Bernier - Matched by Vancouver, he signed one more two year contract with the Canucks before being traded to Florida. Bernier is now with the NJ Devils, known for his major penalty in game six of last season’s Stanley Cup final.
2010 Niklas Hjalmarsson - Matched by Chicago after the Blackhawks won the cup, he remains with the team but is often the subject of trade rumors.
2012 Shea Weber - Matched by Nashville.
Twelve offer sheet matches in the past 16 years including Nashville’s match of the offer sheet dropped by Philadelphia. Contenders and pretenders, heroes and goats... The list above is a solid group of players, some superstars, a hall-of-famer or two, quite a few Stanley Cup winners and one that will be the first one to tell you, his name being on it is a bit unexpected.
Stu Grimson spent 16 seasons in the NHL playing for eight different franchises, finishing his playing career in Nashville during the 2001-02 season. Grimson makes his home in Middle Tennessee and spent his post-playing-career time earning his college degree and successfully completing law school. He has been a part of the Predators radio broadcast team for the past few seasons and has also spent time working as a legal counsel to the NHLPA. Grimson experienced what it was like to sign an offer sheet, then have to return to the team that he almost left. I reached out to him to find out what it was like.
After finishing his first season with Detroit (his 8th in the NHL,) Stu Grimson was a restricted free agent. During that offseason, the New York Rangers reached out to him to gauge his interest in moving to New York. The Rangers had just won their first cup in 54 years during the previous season. Stu was familiar with their management as Ranger GM Neil Smith was instrumental in him being drafted into the NHL years earlier. After some discussion, an offer sheet was extended by the Rangers, five years for $2.5 million, it doesn't sound like much now... but as Grimson puts it, the offer was “well above market value for a player of my caliber.” The deal was front-loaded and specifically designed to be hard to match. Sound familiar? Grimson signed it... and the waiting began.
Stu was a bit surprised that the Red Wings came back to match the offer. We discussed the thought process behind the offer sheet, he told me that, in his case, it didn’t mean he didn’t want to play for Detroit, it just meant he had a great offer on the table from New York and that the Rangers had just won a cup and were willing to “do what it takes to be a consistent winner.”
When Detroit matched, he was happy to return to the Red Wing locker room and felt no ill will from his teammates or any additional pressure because of what happened, as Stu puts it “business is business at the end of the day” and that “the guys in the room are respectful of the process.”
It still remains to be seen how the situation will play out in Nashville. Will it play out similarly to what happened with Grimson? Stu expects that Shea Weber will put this situation behind him quickly and get back to playing the game as best he can, according to him, it is what a player does after he takes care of business.
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ROAD TRIP!!!!!
SlapShot Radio has circled the date... February 9th at the Verizon Center in DC for our next SlapShot Radio Road Trip... we are working out details and will forward as we get them. Keep an eye on the SlapShot Radio page on Facebook for details.
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Random Notes
- A bit of a circular firing squad last night among Shea Weber’s representation as both Kevin Epp and Jarrett Bousquet were tap dancing until their shoes smoked in their appearances on several different radio outlets. Epp said bluntly that his colleague’s statement that the Predators were “rebuilding” was “probably not accurate.” Hmmmm…. Ya think?
- I know if I were GM David Poile, I would have difficulty preventing myself from busting out laughing if Bousquet or Epp came to me asking for a no-trade or no movement clause.
- The arrogance of some is absolutely amazing… there are plenty of writers that think that the Nashville ownership is so stupid that they would pay over 20% of Weber’s contract value in one year… then trade him… honestly guys, give it up. He is here for awhile…
- I love my hometown, but only in Philly would you see a column titled “Flyers may not have won in Weber dealings, but they didn’t lose either.” Really… it’s in today’s Philadelphia daily News… I’m not kidding… here's the
link. Frank Ceravalli is a good writer and I do understand playing to the base... but this is a bit over the top. I’ll stick with Sam Carchidi for my Flyer news.
- Best headline I saw in the Philly media goes to the Camden Courier-Post… “Shea it ain’t so.” Classic.
- Don’t be surprised to see Philly go after Jay Bouwmeester… a consolation prize, but he would help that blueline.
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