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Still no progress with Canes UFAs
by David Lee on 06/30/09 at 10:06 PM ET
Comments (5)
Today is the last day for teams to re-sign their potential UFAs before they enter the market at noon on Wednesday. Everyone in Raleigh was hoping that an announcement would come that the team had come to terms with Chad LaRose. It didn’t. As expected, there was also no announcement about Erik Cole. Jim Rutherford has made it clear that he will not initiate any more negotiations with them. He has put “final offers” on the table. Ryan Bayda has also declined Carolina’s “final offer” and will test the free agent market. Although no doors are permanently shut and no bridges are burned, this has ruffled Jim Rutherford’s feathers.
“If they go into tomorrow then they’re obviously making the choice to go somewhere else,” he said. “We’ve given our best offer within our budget to try to keep them, and at this point it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.”
Contrast that quote with one about Jussi Jokinen, which I’ll point to later in this post.
Rutherford has also pledged not to be aggressive in the FA market and might wait until August to sign anyone. He went as far as to tell Puck Daddy that the only thing he’d be signing on July 1 would be a birthday card to his cousin. ...
LaRose had a good season and an impressive playoff run. He’s certainly not a household name around the league, but I will guarantee that every GM in the league knows his name and he might find a few suitors tomorrow. On the other hand, he might not be able to get an offer greater than whatever Carolina’s final offer was.
I won’t cry any tears over Erik Cole. I wasn’t excited when he came back here at the trading deadline, and knowing his history, nobody should be surprised that he wouldn’t accept Carolina’s offers. He’s been overpaid and isn’t as effective a power forward as he used to be. Is it the injury? Is it his age catching up to him? Maybe a little of both. However, the main reason, in my opinion is that he’s a one-trick pony. By now, everyone in the league knows that he has that one power move where he charges down the middle of the ice, swings really wide to the right after crossing center ice, then swoops in through the slot, trying to hold off his defender with his left arm. He used to finish that move off by shooting and scoring, or by drawing a holding penalty. Now, he doesn’t even shoot at the end of that, let alone score.
While Cole brings a hard-working ethic to the table, and while he’s a well-liked guy in the room and in the community, he goes extended periods with no offensive production. He still relies too much on that one move that everyone has figured out. Most importantly, he pulled an unforgivable disappearing act in the playoffs this spring. Going back to 2002, as I’ve written before, Cole has been a really terrible playoff performer when he’s not playing against Jose Theodore. In 43 career NHL playoff games, he has just six goals and eight assists. Unacceptable. Of those 14 points, seven (4/3) came in a six game series against Jose Theodore and the Montréal Canadiens in the 2002 ECSF.
Jussi Jokinen was an absolute stud in the playoffs and could have easily played hardball at the negotiating table, but he actually took a pay cut to stay in Carolina. This unselfish behaviour impressed Jim Rutherford and will make him even more of a fan favorite.
“I think when you look at Jokinen’s situation he clearly did not want to go anywhere else, and that’s how you get these done prior to July 1. He worked really hard with us on his contract to make that fit within our team, so we appreciate what he did as a player and we appreciate what he did in the negotiations. I expect him to have a really good year this year.”
I would bet that we’ve seen the last of Erik Cole, but that he’ll end up settling somewhere for less than what the Canes offered. I’ll also bet that, barring some eleventh hour negotiation, Chad LaRose will be wearing 59 for a different team in the fall.
I don’t like the “wait until August” approach. By then, there won’t be anything worth writing home about. Carolina will have no choice but to bring up some of the kids from Albany. The other obvious option would be to trade for a top nine forward.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have tendered qualifying sheets to RFAs Tuomo Ruutu and Anton Babchuk. Both will be expected back in Raleigh in the fall.
Filed in: | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Chad+LaRose, Erik+Cole, free+agency,
Comments
Lee: the question with Williams was, will you get $3.5M*2 years of future production out of him? His injury record suggested not. Put another way, with Williams on board we’d have had a tough time making budget room to resign Ruutu (hopefully), let alone make a reasonable offer to LaRose.
And despite his disappearing act in the playoffs themselves, Cole’s return did spark the push that got us there. I’m of the opinion that the playoff run plus the cap/budget clearing validated the trade. I still want JR to spend the money wisely (though I’d prefer a defenseman), but I think three rounds of playoffs earned the right to have that judged separately.
Posted by Josh Crockett from Charlottesville, VA on 06/30/09 at 10:56 PM ET
It’s funny how many expendable players get selfish around contract time. I like Chad LaRose but he’s not consistent enough to garner big salary...Cole...forget it...Bayda?!? Really?!? He’s not a top 6 on most teams. Well...they’re going to have to learn the salary-shame equation. Yes...you might get more money playing for another team but you’ll have no pride in your work and you will lose and likely when your contract is up you’ll be paid less because you were on a cruddy team. Good luck to them...and I mean that in the most sarcastic tone available known to man.
Posted by stoneman from vegas on 07/01/09 at 01:10 AM ET
As fans we’re guessing when it comes to these contract negotiations, but I do feel like the organizaton has always undervalued LaRose. Let’s not forget that when asked to step up into the Top-6 a season or two ago, he did really well. So, not only is there a grit/character side to his game, but he’s a point-producer when called upon. He was perhaps the only forward who showed up in the Penguins series. Plus, he’s a great team guy. I don’t know what the Canes are thinking on this one, unless LaRose is asking for something unreasonable, which we don’t know.
Here’s my ideal scenario: LaRose re-signs, Brind’amour retires after camp, freeing up a bunch of money to make an acquisition/trade. I have a feeling we’ll see a young guy start the season in Carolina much like Sutter did last year, then the Canes will make an acquisition that allows the young player to move to the AHL.
Posted by caneshockeyfan on 07/01/09 at 09:00 AM ET
I will be very disappointed if we lose Chad LaRose. I initially thought that the Canes would have no trouble signing Chad unless he and his agent were making unreasonable demands. But from what Rutherford has offered LaRose, I can’t blame him for looking elsewhere. If every player put as much effort into every shift as Chad does, it’s hard to imagine that we wouldn’t be very competitive with every team. When I was watching Detroit in the playoffs, it seemed to me that they had a bunch of players who put out the effort like Chad does, and maybe that’s part of why they are so successful.
With only a few months of playing more than 10 minutes a game, and with not being on the power play, Chad scored 19 goals. I think that (and his playoff performance) shows that he is capable of scoring 30 goals a year if you put him on any of the first 3 lines. He also creates so many opportunities for the other players by stealing the puck or pestering the puck carrier, and he is effective in drawing penalties without being a jerk like Sean Avery. I think that LaRose should have been offered at least what Jokinen got, if not a little more, but my understanding is that he was offered considerably less. I think that the Canes are going to miss LaRose much more than most people may realize.
Posted by canesfan in Cary from Cary, NC on 07/01/09 at 01:13 PM ET
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About Red & Black Hockey
David Lee is a restaurant manager with an unused degree in political science. He can be found at Carolina Hurricanes games, Scrabble tournaments and indie-rock shows. Sometimes, all in the same day.
David has contributed to CBC.ca for their Stanley Cup playoff coverage in 2006 and to the New York Times Slapshot blog for theirs in 2008. Red and Black Hockey was founded in July of 2005.
Rutherford traded Justin Williams to bring Cole back. So I don’t care if it’s Cole or some other top 6 guy - but he damn well better get someone to replace him.
Posted by Lee from Raleigh on 06/30/09 at 10:19 PM ET