NJDevs26
Once upon a time...
- Mar 21, 2007
- 67,401
- 31,709
Clowe and Ryder were signed before Kovalchuk retired.
I hope you're not implying that Lou intentionally drafted Matteau because he wanted a guy that would immediately play in the NHL, because the draft was also before Kovalchuk walked away. And Conte went so far as to say Matteau was much higher on their board than 29 and they were surprised he was still there. They legitimately thought he was good. EVEN AFTER Kovalchuk walked away and we needed bodies he still got sent down after 15 games after Lou got the ball rolling on his ELC.
The money excuse only goes so far. Lou let Ponikarovsky go because we couldn't afford him, and then traded for him a week into the season. He made Parise a competitive offer, he wanted to go to Minnesota to play with Suter (which turned out great for us, he's rapidly declining and still has EIGHT years left on his contract).
Lou did make moves with the expectation of the KHL All-Star leaving, he knew he was thinking of going before the season and was told he was leaving immediately after the season but the announcement was delayed - presumably to help our leverage in FA.
But I agree on Matteau, you can't attribute THAT to money, at least not the draft pick itself. Maybe playing him early as long as they did, but even then it's debatable cause you could literally have played any AHL scrub/retread or brought Sykora-Poni back for cheap and not screwed around with the ELC of a marginal prospect. They liked Matteau's background and Conte wanted another Zubrus.