At what point does Bob resign UFAs and RFAs, optimally, and who stays?
A few games into the season, Tanguay is making a good case for having his contract renewed, especially if he can be had at the current salary.
If you're Bob Gainey, how long do you wait, and whose contract do you renew, assuming they can be had at comparable salaries in the case of the expensive players, and hometown discounts in the case of up-and-coming players whose salary will likely increase? Assuming also that waiting until season's end may entice some of these players to offer their services on the open market...
You get to see who cares about their money and who cares about another Cup.
If they want the band back together for another run, they will take a little less here and a little less there. If they just want to green their pockets, they can go play in Nashville in front of 10,000.
I'm not saying Koivu and Kovalev should take $1M each and that Higgins should sign a 5 year, $12M contract. Just nobody should expect big raises aside from the youngsters. The veterans, if they want to stick around, should expect to be asked to take a cut. I think Koivu and Kovalev at $3M each would be fair.
More like he just doesn't negotiate haphazardly during the season. But he still does it, with tangible results in the Koivu case, and with documented reports on other cases like Komisarek most recently.
His *preference* may be to wait until off-season, where possible. And that may be the party line that sometimes gets reported. But other reports clearly contradict that.
Unless you're splitting hairs between "having talks"/whatever and real hard-line "negotiation".
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Something he needs to change because guys like komisarek keep getting more expensive by the day.
Players aren't going to keep getting more expensive if the revenue projections halt the cap inflation trend we've seen in recent years, though. Waiting in that sense might pay off. He pretty much *has* to wait on at least some cases until a realistic cap projection is in.
That said, he has to keep talking with everybody in the meantime. Koivu, Kovalev, Tanguay, Komi, if any of those guys is willing to sign a contract right now that involves any kind of hometown discount or otherwise looks favourable relative to the market, hey, get them signed. If not, waiting may not be quite as big a problem as it was in the old days. We've never really seen a depressed UFA market in the NHL. But if we get one, well, it could be a heckuva good time for us to have so many UFAs!
Actually.. he specifically said that he does not have a rule about not negociating during the season.
anymore.. now, except for Komi (and even there) there is no hurry. I think it was part of the plan to have players playing for a contract this year, 'cause it's the 100th and it's now or never.
anymore.. now, except for Komi (and even there) there is no hurry. I think it was part of the plan to have players playing for a contract this year, 'cause it's the 100th and it's now or never.
This is stupid to say it's now or never. This is not how a rational GM like Bob Gainey acts.
1) not all negotiations lead to a contract during the season....
2) Bob has said he doesn't negotiate with everyone during the season, but in some cases he will do so.
Bob Gainey will probably not negotiate till the end of the season. Maybe not even with Komisarek.
Koivu, Kovalev, Tanguay, Plekanec. Pick one of them and imagine Bob announcing he was signed for 3-4 years. What will the other 3 think? The message sent would be very bad.
Unlike other GM's, Gainey follows some basic principles. He does not want to pay a player more then what he is worth to the team. And he wants his players to have confidence in him. At the end of the season, based on an in-depth performance evaluation he will make reasonable offers to everyone - even Streit got an offer. Most likely under what these players could get on the free market. Some will go Markov/AKost. Others will go Souray/Streit. But there is only so much a GM can do.
Markov and Akost were great signings. In Bob we Trust.
This is stupid to say it's now or never. This is not how a rational GM like Bob Gainey acts.
calm down now. Timmins has done a good job for now, so there will always be some good young players to step up right now. Now, it's easy to see for anyone with one once of logic that Gainey has planned this for a long time. It's a given to anyone with a little bit of hockey knowledge (or any sport for the mater) that players play with an extra edge on contract year. now,...
untill he signs someone to an extension during the season, I continue to believe he doesnt negociate.
He did re-sign Koivu during the season a couple of years back, right after Jan 1...I think you will see him pick away during this season and sign a couple of guys, leaving others until after the season...
I would try to re-sign Koivu and Komisarek during the season if I was Bob. Everyone else can wait. Komisarek for obvious reasons and Koivu mostly because he's a center.
Koivu, Kovalev, Tanguay, Plekanec. Pick one of them and imagine Bob announcing he was signed for 3-4 years. What will the other 3 think? The message sent would be very bad.
The pecking order there would be:
1. Koivu
2. Kovalev
3. Plekanec
4. Tanguay
Signing Koivu would not anger anyone. Having your captain locked up is a huge importance. Same to Kovalev, but unless he is taking a paycut, theres no reason to sign him before Koivu. Tanguay and Plekanec are in the same boat, but since Tanguay is new, he is a bit lower on the pecking order (despite right now being our best offensive player).
It wouldn't really offend anyone unless people are getting raises that mean they would have to take extreme paycuts to stay (Like, for example, say we sign Plek for $6M and Kovalev for $6M, then there is no room for Tanguay).
