shrader

Is it one calendar year from the date of the signing/date of the match or is it the one NHL calendar year (7/1-6/30)?

Nitpick alert: it’s not a loophole when it’s explicitly written into the CBA. They planned for this option. Van Ryn was a loophole, not this.

But traded prior to hitting the UFA market in 5 years. If he stays on current track and that ownership remains in place at that point, there's no way they'll pay his market rate.

His qualifying offer would have been for more money than this, but could be a two-way deal, right? That pretty much guarantees that it is one-way, a good sized cut at the NHL level but a huge raise if in the AHL.

Waddell is the only GM in the league who has to bill by the hour.

By "something crazy" does he mean "offer him the veteran minimum"?

Does that imply that they're fat?

If that's the case, why didn't they just do it on their own? Their whole approach here makes no sense to me. They've sent a very clear message that they aren't willing to offer their best player what he's actually worth. That's going to ripple downstream. You better believe that Svechnikov is watching this. What's going to happen when they don't have the option to match the contract? Exactly. This didn't build much good will with Aho for the moment that negotiation comes around.

I get the impression that it's St. Louis or bust for him. So we all know which option it will be.

Oh great, we've now gone to not only just politics, but canadian politics. Thanks a lot pi.

I'm amazed that people continuously fall for that act.

In other words, their assets are currently tied up. I thought your point was clear.

It’s still not as bad as Dougie

I kind of wish they could cancel all game today in a case like this. Probably a risky move though in case a bad story comes out later.

If you believe in the system far more than either goalie...

I turn on jeopardy and a guy I know from college is on. Creepy dude edit: crap, he won

The real beauty of this situation they've bumbled themselves into is that Carolina is left with two options: 1. They let Aho walk and get very little compensation, or 2. They match the deal and enter the season with James Reimer as their starting goalie That initial boost in attendance they'll have for the home opener is going to die off very quickly.

And on that note, the RFA compensation is there pretty much to protect those small markets. As you're suggesting, with it being so rare, that process seems to be working.

I'd imagine that people paid a bit more attention to Peca though, groaning about that deal. That's completely understandable when you're talking about sending Mogilny out of town. There's not all that much concern when Chris Gratton is sent packing.

We've talked a bit in here about trading him after a year, but that option is probably out the window at this point. If they match, the contract is fairly cheap in terms of actual dollars beyond this first year. Fairly cheap fits the Dundon model perfectly.

I don't know if it changed since last week, since I was out on vacation, but the story at that point was that Waddell didn't actually have a contract for next season yet. Nothing official anyway.

In other words, Dundon will issue an order and Waddell will follow, never uttering a single word, other than maybe "ok".

I wonder if Montreal is in a spot like Edmonton back in the Vanek days where they're going to bounce from RFA to RFA if Carolina decides to match.

Not cash poor, just plain cheap. The rest of the guys on that team probably aren't even making the combined $21 million that Aho will get over the next year. If anyone could pass on this contract, it's Dundon.

People are going to want to spin that as talking to the other team's guys, but it must have been in relation to our own. Do we know the question there?