Shea Weber Accepts Offer Sheet from Phi (14 Years, 100 Mill)

[RoyalDude]

How about this, we trade Mike Gillis, the whole scouting department, David Booth and Keith Ballard to the Flyers for Paul Holmgren?

[Madcombinepilot]

can we trade the dude to philly?


with the preds desperate for both a bad contract (they need to get to the cap floor) and defencemen, we trade Ballard to the Preds for Gaustad and Halischuk.

Everyone wins

[okcanuck]

Nashville will match and Buttman wont say a f----ing word. I swear Phillies owner must have caught Buttman screwing a goat. This front -end loading has to stop.

[Blob Mckenzie]

How about this, we trade Mike Gillis, the whole scouting department, David Booth and Keith Ballard to the Flyers for Paul Holmgren?

I'd rather have the Oilers scouting staff. Must take a wizard to draft 1st overall every year . imagine Kevin lowe or S Tambellini running the show here ??

I swear dude you are getting easier to smack around than CJB.

Lose the troll hat my friend......

[Boston Canucker]

How about this, we trade Mike Gillis, the whole scouting department, David Booth and Keith Ballard to the Flyers for Paul Holmgren?

You mean so we can gain the benefit of his expertise on how to win a round or two in the playoffs - or get close in the final, but not actually win - every year? Gee, that'll be a change. Yes, he's clearly got this GMing thing all figured out...having been at it longer than MG. Please repost when the results of the moves he makes match the "look at the shiny bobble, it's so shiny" attraction of the moves. Dean Lombardi called, just to say, you know, dinner's on me, Paul.

[RoyalDude]

How about this, we trade Mike Gillis, the whole scouting department, David Booth and Keith Ballard to the Flyers for Paul Holmgren?

I'd rather have the Oilers scouting staff. Must take a wizard to draft 1st overall every year . imagine Kevin lowe or S Tambellini running the show here ??

I swear dude you are getting easier to smack around than CJB.

Lose the troll hat my friend......

Listen Blobby Bear, I don't like Mike Gillis, so what. I actually can't understand why you like him. It's almost like you are afflicted with that Canuck homer disease that you don't feel comfortable slagging a Canuck player, coach or management until they are no longer under the services of the Canuck Organization.

What is it Blobby Cat that makes you stand up for Mike Gillis, be in his camp, a Gillis campaigner, supporter, got his back etc.,

My reasons

- the rookie GM mistake he made by trading a 2nd and 3rd round pick Steve Bernier while not to long before that trade he slagged the previous Canuck management for their trading away of draft picks.

- The Keith Ballard trade...fucking awful.
- Letting our best defenseman - Erhoff walk, the Ballard contract might have had something to do with this.
- The waste of time Sundin signing, woohoo, he mentored Kesler
- The Sturm signing
- The Booth trade, taking on that contract for a meh player
- The Pahlsson trade, two 4th round picks
- Letting Willie Mitchell walk
- The poor handling of Cody Hodgson and trading him for a minor league project whom they had hoped would toughen them up for the playoffs but this go around, goal scoring became our nemesis, or lack thereof. Great idea, you struggle scoring goals trade CoHo our 3rd line centre and replace him with Pahlsson. Great idea for the playoffs.
- The special treatment that Manny Malhotra gets around here
- His lack of brass balls when it comes to shaking the tree when the tree needs shaking while other GM's around the league are being pro-active.
- Gillis idea of adding to the team are middling role player, journeyman types, ie the Calgary Flame model over the last 10 years, completely depleting your prospect depth cause of the fascination of acquiring the, Pahlssons, Higgins, Malhotra types. He has no balls in bringing kids along onto the team living through there mistakes when it's the kids who provide a fresh new look on the team that actually bring inspiration to the vets.
- he plays it way too safe in which in the end will end up making us the classic just above .500 hundred hockey team filled with good guys on and off the ice, boring, boring, boring

[spooner]

On the way home from work I was listening to Prime Time Sports. Elliotte Friedman (who I like) was filling in for Bob McCown (who I usually have a hard time listening to). Friedman and Shannon had Weber's agent on the show. Pretty good interview with a few things coming to light. Here are the highlights in my opinion:

1. Weber wants out of Nashville. The agent didn't come right out and say that specifically but he definitely leaned that way. He said that when a player signs an offer sheet he is pointed in that direction. He talked about how July 4th (Suter signing in Min) changed everything and how Shea wanted to go where he had the best chance to win. When asked how Weber would react to Nashville matching, he paused for quite a while and then said that Shea would be professional if that's the case, just like he was after arbitration last year. When they asked about the decision the Predators have to make over the next week, the agent just listed reasons (mostly financial) why they shouldn't. It doesn't make a cent of difference to the agent whether Weber plays in Philly or Nashville so it seems like that preference towards Philly is coming from Weber himself. This morning I was thinking that Weber signing the offer sheet indicated he'd be happy to play the rest of his career in Nashville. I'm convinced otherwise now.

2. It sounds like they treated this much more like he was a UFA than typical RFAs do. The visited several competitive teams and weighed all of the pros and cons of each destination, including opportunity to win, neighborhoods, lifestyle, ownership stability etc. It sounds like Philly was their first choice as when they talked about the trade option he said they suggested Philly as the team they wanted a trade to occur with.

3. The Canucks were one of the teams he visited. Friedman had mentioned earlier today that he believed the Canucks were one of the teams he visited. He tried to dig into why Weber didn't chose Van but the agent didn't give up much. It sounded to me like Philly was his first choice and all of the other teams were considered very good organizations. The agent did mention something about family (back in BC) could be a distraction but stopped there. I'd have to hear it again to decide if there was anything to that.


There may have been more that I missed. You can listen to the interview at the following link. It is at the start of the latest podcast (6:00 I believe):
http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime_time_sports/

This morning, like many of you, I was convinced Nashville will match. I think this interview changes things. Nashville would be crazy to take 4 late first rounders but if he really doesn't want to be a Predator, they may have to look at working out a better trade with Philly. If they match the offer, they won't be able to trade Weber for a full year which due to the timing means they will owe him the first two years of salary and bonuses ($28 mil). That's a tremendous amount to pay a player in one year just to turn around and trade him (which is what he may request if he really doesn't want to finish his career there).

[ODB]

Med's Post.

I don't know Med's? To be fair I have to concede your point. I just can't argue the system is good. Front loading contracts ect.

But I still also stick to what I said about Poile fucking things up. I don't want to spend an hour researching and posting links but I've read things like (from the main stream media, not bloggers) Weber asked for a three year 21 million dollar deal and Poile wouldn't do it. Instead he elected to take Weber to arbitration and argue he was only worth 4.5 million. That put Poile in a terrible position. The arbitrator ruled in Webers favor and Poile was then faced with the reality his superstar captain would once again be a RFA the following summer. He would not be able to negotiate a long term deal until the one year deal awarded expired and he was not able to file for arbitration a second year in a row. Weber would be exposed to potential offers and there was nothing he could do but spew off at the mouth saying we'll match any offer.

He messed it up IMO! No way you treat your franchise player like that.

Losing Suter was the last straw.

That was a more difficult situation because Suter was a UFA. Not much you can do but offer the moon. Poile said he did so lets give him the benefit of the doubt. Either way the way he handled Weber is either going to cost ownership 60+ million over the next five years or he loses him for sweet fuck all. The loss will have a huge impact and again, ownership will feel it.

He fucked up!

[Hockey Widow]

The part about family being a distraction is of a concern. What does that mean for players like Doan? May explain why all these BC boys, past and present, don't want to come here. Gotta feel bad for Nashville. In one off season their team may implode. If they lose both Suter and Weber all the draft picks in the world won't help. They still have problems scoring.

So maybe Ballard will look good in Pred colours???

[surreal78]

can we trade the dude to philly?

A cheesesteak and a bag of pucks sounds like fair compensation to me!

[surreal78]

If they match the offer, they won't be able to trade Weber for a full year which due to the timing means they will owe him the first two years of salary and bonuses ($28 mil). That's a tremendous amount to pay a player in one year just to turn around and trade him (which is what he may request if he really doesn't want to finish his career there).

Was reading a post by Scott Burnside at ESPN and he mentioned that right as the first year is up, a full NTC/NMC clause kicks in. Wonder if there is a window in there he could be traded or if NSH is basically stuck with him afterwards (barring a mutual trade request).

Link: http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/81813 ... ffer-sheet

[CaptainTrev]

The part about family being a distraction is of a concern. What does that mean for players like Doan? May explain why all these BC boys, past and present, don't want to come here.

It means nothing except "to each his own" Family distractions weren't a big enough concern to deter Garrison, Hamhuis or Mitchell. Brendan Morrison stayed on board for 8 years and hometown ties were what attracted Jeff Tambellini (yeah I know, major coup there)

I didn't follow the team as closely back then, but I think Ronning was always happy in Van.

While it's a downer that the BC connection never scored us Sakic or Kariya or Weber, that probably has more to do with them being really expensive and hard to acquire superstar players.

Who knows, maybe Weber's family are a bunch of douches.

[Lancer]

If they match the offer, they won't be able to trade Weber for a full year which due to the timing means they will owe him the first two years of salary and bonuses ($28 mil). That's a tremendous amount to pay a player in one year just to turn around and trade him (which is what he may request if he really doesn't want to finish his career there).

Was reading a post by Scott Burnside at ESPN and he mentioned that right as the first year is up, a full NTC/NMC clause kicks in. Wonder if there is a window in there he could be traded or if NSH is basically stuck with him afterwards (barring a mutual trade request).

Link: http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/81813 ... ffer-sheet

If Weber really wants out of Nashville, it doesn't hurt Poile to match the offer anyway. Right now, until he matches, his only real trading partner is Philly. Even with a NMC/NTC, it opens the market to more teams than just Philly and Poile could get more than he will now. His agent said Weber would 'be professional' if the Preds matched it so you know he would show up and play next season so it's a matter of what Poile could get for him next year.

[ODB]

If Weber really wants out of Nashville, it doesn't hurt Poile to match the offer anyway. Right now, until he matches, his only real trading partner is Philly. Even with a NMC/NTC, it opens the market to more teams than just Philly and Poile could get more than he will now. His agent said Weber would 'be professional' if the Preds matched it so you know he would show up and play next season so it's a matter of what Poile could get for him next year.

I don't think so Lancer. I think if Nashville matches they can not trade Weber for a year. That means they would have to eat about 25 million in cash before they could make a trade. I can't see ownership doing that. They would basically be dolling out 25m to trade Weber for a fair return. Though if they did it would sort of fuck Weber because he has no NTC, NMC. Philly gave their word they would add it in after. If Nashville matches they won't add in shit! Nashville could match and trade him to some shit ass city. Worse than Nashville? I don’t know. Ha, if I was a billionaire and a player fucked me like this I might just pay him his money and BURRY HIM IN THE MONORS FOR THE REST OF HIS CAREER… lol.

I do however believe they can trade Weber to Philly now, during the week window but I can't see Philly giving much. Why when you know you have him for 4 late 1st rounders?

[black ace]

I have seen a few mentions this morning on Twitter that Weber did in fact visit Vancouver but Gillis decided against an offer sheet becase he thought that Nashville would just match anyways.

The offer sheet does not include a no trade but if its matched by Nashville then he cant be traded until 1 year from the day they match.