About a week ago, news broke late at night that the Philadelphia Flyers had submitted an offer sheet to Nashville Predators' restricted free agent defenseman Shea Weber. The offer was for 14 years, $110M. Crazy stuff, right?
When this broke, I was stunned. In fact, my exact reaction was pretty much this.
It was kind of a smart move on Philadelphia's part, cause they desperately needed defense, considering Ilya Bryzgalov's determination to be the biggest sieve in the league. Did they help themselves by dealing James van Riemsdyk to Toronto for Luke Schenn? Of course, Schenn is a young and talented player. But unless he was coming along with some magic potion to give to Bryzgalov, they were still screwed. Getting Shea Weber, who's an absolute beast at 6'4 234 pounds, meant that they were going to be a much improved team from this past year, one in which they were still one of the best teams in the league. Of course, Weber had to sign the offer sheet, which he obviously did.
Like a boss.
Anyways, after Weber signed the offer sheet, Nashville had 7 days to decide whether to let him pack up and leave for Philly or tell Flyers' GM Paul Holmgren to screw off and match the offer. It was a long and anxious wait for both Flyers and Predators fans, one that I sat back and enjoyed as I watched all my Philly friends squirm and reload their Twitter timelines every 10 seconds or so, hoping to see that Dave Poile, Nashville's GM, had decided to let Weber walk. Did that happen? Nope. Poile called up Holmgren, probably threw a few insults around about his wife, and matched the offer, giving all of Flyers Nation the middle finger.
All I can say right now to the Flyers is well done. You tried to absolutely screw yourselves out of both draft picks and cap space all while ignoring the fact that there is a very real chance that Chris Pronger retires, therefore sticking the Flyers with his pretty big cap hit ($4.921M to be exact) and putting them over the cap limit, which would in turn force them to either buyout players to clear cap space or trade away a handful of players for virtually nothing but cap relief.
Now on to how this decision affects the Bruins. For one, it stops Tuukka Rask and every forward on the team from having a coronary about facing Shea Weber, his big body, and his cannon of a shot. Second, this ups the ante big time for Bobby Ryan, assuming the Bruins are in fact in on him. They lost out on Weber, and they're going to feel the need to counter New York's acquisition of Rick Nash. Ryan is the biggest name on the trade market now that the Nash dilemma is over with, and if the Flyers decide to go for him, the Bruins are gonna have to pony up big time. I'm talking having to send not just one or two players, but one or two players, plus Ryan Spooner, plus Dougie Hamilton, and plus two first round picks (just my best guess). And honestly, is that really worth it?
Rhetorical question, of course it's not.
Of course right now the price for Ryan is likely lower than anyone could have imagined due to the incompetency of Scott Howson in Columbus, but when you have a desperate team on the other line asking for your stud forward, you're obviously going to milk every last drop of talent you can out of them. And that's bad news for everyone, because Paul Holmgren is really not that bright (If I trade Richards and Carter we'll win the Cup! Oh no wait...) and he's just the guy to offer up an enormous package to Bob Murray out in the Golden State just to be totally sure he sees Bobby Ryan donning the black and orange next season.
One last point to be made is the contracts that are being signed/offered. The league owners are pretty much getting themselves ready for a lockout because they think the players make too much money. But then they go and dish out money like it grows on frigging trees.
$100M FOR EVEYRBODY!!!!!!!
Ryan Suter and Zach Parise both signed 13 year, $98M contracts and now Weber is inked to a 14 year, $110M contract. Are you kidding me?
You said it Claude.
Back to the Boston Bruins Newsfeed