Quote:
Originally Posted by nmbr_24
To be fair, I thought they said they could sign one of Chara or Redden and they chose Redden. They had to choose, it didn't work out the best for them, they still made it to the finals in the first year they didn't have Chara.
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Redden was asking for 6.5 M over 3 years. Chara was asking for 7.5 M over 5 years (league maximum).
Chara had just come off a season where he broke his wrist and played poorly against the Sabres.
Ottawa had to make space to re-sign Heatley and Spezza down the road and were already close to the cap.
Ultimately, it was the wrong choice, obviously, but it's not as if it was as simple as Redden or Chara.