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Monster Delays His Decision
by Paul on 06/30/09 at 10:58 AM ET
Comments (8)
via Sportsnet,
Jonas Gustavsson, the free-agent goalie from Sweden is going to wait until after July 1 to announce his decision.
Gustavsson’s agent Joe Resnick told Hockeycentral “It’s highly unlikely we’ll commit before 12 noon Wednesday. With so many teams potentially making major changes to their rosters, maybe it’s best to wait and watch it unfold first.”
Filed in: NHL Teams | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Jonas+Gustavsson,
Comments
Ugh.
Posted by Andrew Mack on 06/30/09 at 11:03 AM ET
In other words: He’s looking for top frickin dollar… A few teams will get screwed by not going after quality starters because they hope to land him…
That’s a choice those teams will have to make...just like every year at this time. Gustavsson, on the other hand, is taking a risk that money previously earmarked for his salary might be spent on someone else by the time he decides to make a deal. Rather than leveraging his “special case” status, he and his agent have decided to lump him in with all of the other UFAs. I’m not sure if that was the best way to maximize his value. I guess we’ll find out though, huh?
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 06/30/09 at 11:15 AM ET
so, if you’re GM what do you you do ? Not chasing one of the other UFA goalies and risking coming up empty handed ?
I think Gustavsson just hurt his changes because at the time he’s ready to choose there may be no team left where he wants to go.
Posted by FinFan from Germany on 06/30/09 at 11:15 AM ET
He’s restricted by entry-level deals so I’d be surprised if it is about the money. Maybe he wants a guarantee to stay at the NHL level.
Posted by Andrew Mack on 06/30/09 at 11:17 AM ET
That’s right AM,
The only good thing about this “saga” is that he can make a maximum 900k his first year, so the four GMs don’t have to save more than one mil in cap space or try to outbid each other for his services.
I think the choice boils down to, is he going to start? Will he have a future with the team? Or, will the team be a good place to develop his skills while transitioning his game from the Swedish Elite league to the NHL?
Personally, I think it doesn’t matter where he goes his first year. I don’t think he will light the world on fire, but he’ll still be very good. If it were me, I would use this year as a jump off point to next season’s free agency day. That’s when we will see a bidding war for him.
That is unless he sucks like another Swede everyone was waiting on last season...Poor Vancouver…
Posted by AvsRock from My timeshare in insanity... on 06/30/09 at 03:42 PM ET
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“Monster adds to Madness” I think would have been an appropriate title as well, Paul.
Burke’s head probably just rotated 360 degrees and is now spewing pea soup.
Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/30/09 at 11:02 AM ET