GDT: FA Frenzy Day 3 and beyond (where does Nino go)

[MinJaBen]

NJ is one of the best places in the country to be a multimillionaire. Direct access to all the benefits of NYC, except you go home to some charming little village in the countryside.

Yes the taxes are high, but there's a reason for that. Small-town NJ is almost European in quality of life.

Similarly, there is a pretty big language barrier to get past as well.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Watching this interests me on another aspect as I was watching them tour the rink.

In high school, basketball/football/whatever recruits go on countless visits to colleges to tour facilities, meet staff, etc. I never hear about that happening on the pro level. I guess that could be due to the pro players already going for a trial run any time they play a game in a different city. Not to mention, college recruits also are spending their lives on campus so that also plays a part. Regardless, it just hit me that I never hear about players going on tours at the pro level in any sport. Anyway, just an idle thought I was having

Some of it may also have to do with the tampering rules. There's a huge incentive to get a deal done on the first day of free agency, with the cautionary tales looking like Nino or Kadri.

Of course the only way that contracts can realistically get done on Day 1 is for conversations to happen "unofficially" before the window opens. But something on the scale of a site visit with a player touring facilities would just be too blatant of a violation, something that people couldn't pretend didn't happen. So the players end up relying on recommendations and word-of-mouth rather than physically visiting their preferred destinations.

I might be making this up, but I feel like a couple of years ago a player actually was spotted in an NHL city in what appeared to be a pre-window visit, and it made some waves.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

moving over to the other thread. This one over 1k