So he doesn't see the risk in Semin, but will still only offer a 1-year deal?
I'd be fine with a 1-year deal. The dude has not learned English and with no Russians on the team, it might be a tough fit for him. I'd love to have his talent, but if he's an outkast in the locker room, it could hurt. Why not do the 1 year and if all works out, sign him long term. If it doesn't work out, then you aren't stuck with a disgurntled Russian whose miserable cause he has no friends to hang out with.
I think JR is just going the safe route as we've gotten burned before with taking chances on guys. Sure he's got the talent, but if he doens't fit personality wise, it won't matter how much talent he has.
Now that I think about it, maybe Semin is looking for a 1 year deal.
There are the reasons listed above, plus he gets another year to prove his worth after 2 seasons of decline. A 40-40 year from him would make him the top FA next year, and he could sign a multi year deal closer to his actual worth.
Also, from Chip:
Quote:
Canes looking at setting up trip to Fort Bragg during preseason training camp as a "team bonding" outing.
I'd be fine with a 1-year deal. The dude has not learned English and with no Russians on the team, it might be a tough fit for him. I'd love to have his talent, but if he's an outkast in the locker room, it could hurt. Why not do the 1 year and if all works out, sign him long term. If it doesn't work out, then you aren't stuck with a disgurntled Russian whose miserable cause he has no friends to hang out with.
I think JR is just going the safe route as we've gotten burned before with taking chances on guys. Sure he's got the talent, but if he doens't fit personality wise, it won't matter how much talent he has.
Yeah, I've been saying that for the last few weeks, but I was always met with "We need talent! Who cares if they're not "character" guys! Sign him long term!"
It's just weird that JR claims that he doesn't believe Semin's a risk, but still only offers him a 1-year deal. Offering a 1-year deal (for all the reasons listed) makes sense, but also makes it quite clear that JR believes Semin is a risk.
Offering a multi-year deal (which I believe it's been reported that Semin is looking for) would present more of the idea that the GM doesn't believe Semin is a risk.
Another factor is that teams don't like being used as decoys. That's why you see JR commenting that he's let it known that we're interested, without saying we've made an offer. In the case of Semin, it could be that if we make the guy an offer, he'll just use it as a way to get more money out of Pittsburgh or the Rangers or whatever, with no interest in actually playing here. All that does is needlessly jack up salaries for all teams and makes us look like idiots.
So the Canes will wait for a return phone call before getting into any specific offers, I would think. At some point the guy will pick a team and tell his agent to make the best deal with them, and not necessarily pick the best deal already on the table.
The reason that I can see Semin wanting to sign here, or a few other locales, is that we have enough firepower to insulate him and help him produce as many points as possible WITHOUT having so much firepower that we could bury him on our depth chart if he had a stretch of games that were less than spectacular.
If I were Alexander Semin and my ultimate goal was to sign a long term deal with an NHL team and all I was getting were 1 year offers, I would go to the place that offered me the chance to play with a star player and the chances of being demoted away from that star player were minimal. That way I could leech points from the star player, use him to help artificially inflate my numbers, and not have to worry about the potential of being replaced by an up and coming surprise player and being in this exact same position next season if not worse. Bonus points if said team were in a low exposure market where media pressure is non-existent and the end of season scoring totals will practically tell the entire story of my tenure with the team.
Not to mention the long standing history of players here playing quietly the best hockey of their lives and becoming somewhat proven commodities around the league. We have launched quite a few careers here into another level. We were the reason that Mike Commodore scored a contract he never should have gotten. We were the reason that Matt Cullen became a a multi-millionare. So many nondescript players have blossomed here due to opportunities they wouldn't have otherwise picked up.
Just thinking ahead, does anyone know what date the salary cap is expected to decrease? I've heard it mentioned here plenty of times because of the possibility that it could free up a few decent players from high spending teams, and was wondering when we could see some action start to occur?
There is no competition at left wing outside of Skinner.
He gets to run the PP as the only right handed shot on this miserable team.
He gets to play with a Staal, who is better than the stock of losers Washington kept sticking him with.
And he gets to stick it to Washington six times a year AND rob them of a playoff spot (or at least home ice advantage).
Not to keep harping on this, but why would he choose Carolina over Pittsburgh?
- There's no competition for left wing outside of Neal.
- He gets to play on a PP that's actually...successful
- He gets to play with Crosby or Malkin, both of whom are better than Staal.
- He gets a guaranteed playoff spot, compete for the top of the conference, and play for a team that has a much bigger rivalry with Washington than Carolina does.
I just can't see, out of the teams confirmed to have given him an offer (Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Carolina), why we'd be in the conversation.
Not to keep harping on this, but why would he choose Carolina over Pittsburgh?
- There's no competition for left wing outside of Neal.
- He gets to play on a PP that's actually...successful
- He gets to play with Crosby or Malkin, both of whom are better than Staal.
- He gets a guaranteed playoff spot, compete for the top of the conference, and play for a team that has a much bigger rivalry with Washington than Carolina does.
I just can't see, out of the teams confirmed to have given him an offer (Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Carolina), why we'd be in the conversation.
If he plays for the Hurricanes the mainstream hockey media won't be up his ass on a nightly basis.
