GDT: Free Agent Frenzy: The Horror, the Horror!!!

[DaveG]

SOMEONE DO SOMETHING THIS IS SO BORING

ok bye

On the plus side, training camp opens tomorrow. Though I'll probably go to the Thursday skate only this year. Well, might go tomorrow depending on what time we finish brewing, but probably just Thursday.

 

[Roboturner913]

Not sure it's true that he was always saddled with bad wingers either. For the bulk of his career he had at least one, or some combination of Cole, Stillman, Ruutu or Whitney when those players were good, then he had the Tlusty-Semin combo later on. Those are perfectly capable complementary wingers.

Now, I'll agree that if you're playing with LaRose and a broken-down Ruutu, that's crap and you shouldn't expect much. But that wasn't the norm over the course of his career, either. Brindy often did more with just one decent winger (whether that was J.Will, Cole or whoever) and a plugger than Staal did with good offensive players on both sides of him.

 

[DaveG]

I mean, if he wants to make that comment about the current makeup of the team, where he'd likely be playing with a still developing TT and Aho, then yeah I can understand the frustration. But even last year he didn't have crap, he was lineup with with Versteeg and Lindholm much of the year. It just comes across as sour grapes taking as many digs in the media as he did.

As The Dude would put it:

 

[bleedgreen]

I think Staal is a ****** for making those comments. For the amount of money he got paid, every time the canes are mentioned it should sound like Ricky Bobby thanking Powerade and Taco Bell at the dinner table with his family. That's literally all I want to hear from him.

"Thank you Carolina Hurricanes for wonderful time spent, my family loved every day we were there, and it's just a lovely place to live and play hockey. It's a shame things didn't work out and now I'm looking forward to my new challenge."

His comments while not over the top made me a little nauseous. Biting the hand that fed you. Well.

Lost some point with me to say the least. Regardless of whether or not anything he said was true. Take your money and just walk away.

 

[drganon]

What did he say?

 

[GoldiFox]

Comments just seemed petty and off-base to me.

His value plummeted into the abyss after a miserable Playoff showing with a team that is well known for spending to the Cap. His play in Carolina last year certainly didn't help, but he was downright awful in NYR. Whining about his play falling off because Carolina isn't a Cap team seems like some serious sour grapes to me. Carolina just didn't want to spend any money to keep him. Eric took a piddly deal after a complete Playoff failure in NYR and moped about it... Which is pretty much the most Eric Staal thing he could have done.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Comments just seemed petty and off-base to me.

His value plummeted into the abyss after a miserable Playoff showing with a team that is well known for spending to the Cap. His play in Carolina last year certainly didn't help, but he was downright awful in NYR. Whining about his play falling off because Carolina isn't a Cap team seems like some serious sour grapes to me. Carolina just didn't want to spend any money to keep him. Eric took a piddly deal after a complete Playoff failure in NYR and moped about it... Which is pretty much the most Eric Staal thing he could have done.

Yup.

It's a big whatever to me. He was the face of this franchise for seven non-playoff seasons. Time for a change. That "thank you Carolina" **** in The Player's Trib was all well and good, but sometimes you gotta know when to keep your yapper shut.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

What did he say? I must've missed it?

 

[Joe McGrath]

I can't find a reference to anything he said through basic google searches so if someone has a transcript that would be great. You'd think if he said something to get uppity about somebody outside this message board may have given a flying ****?

 

[GoldiFox]

DeCock mentioned it briefly:

To listen to him, the Hurricanes were largely to blame for his decline in production.

“There’s a lot of circumstances that go along with it why they went the way they did,” Staal told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Staal said he was looking forward to joining a team that spends up to the salary cap, unlike the Hurricanes, which was entirely fair. He certainly wasn’t often blessed with terrific linemates. He also rarely made the players around him better, which was fair to ask of a player of his role and salary. In considering his legacy there’s no getting around the fact he never led the Hurricanes to the playoffs as captain while his individual performance played an indirect role in the firing of three different coaches – Peter Laviolette, Paul Maurice and Kirk Muller.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article87248107.html#storylink=cpy

Basically said that the main reason his production had declined is because the Hurricanes are bad. He conveniently glazed over the fact that he was a non-factor in NYR's Playoff run and that is the primary reason he wasn't even worth $4 million in the Free Agent market.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

DeCock mentioned it briefly:



Basically said that the main reason his production had declined is because the Hurricanes are bad. He conveniently glazed over the fact that he was a non-factor in NYR's Playoff run and that is the primary reason he wasn't even worth $4 million in the Free Agent market.

Well, Luke certainly didn't hold back there.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

what an asshat

 

[The Stranger]

DeCock is putting his own spin on the comments. Here is the original article with quotes:

http://www.startribune.com/wild-signs-eric-staal-to-potentially-center-zach-parise-s-line/385279541/

The main thing people are getting bent out of shape over are these comments:

Two years ago he led the Hurricanes with 61 points in 79 games. The season before, he scored 18 goals and 35 points in the 48-game lockout year. But in the past two seasons, he has gone from 54 points to 13 goals and 39 points in 83 games between the Hurricanes and Rangers last season.

It’s the reason he couldn’t duplicate his just-completed seven-year, $57.5 million contract.

“There’s a lot of circumstances that go along with it as to why things went the way they did, but I believe I’m still a very good player,†Staal said. “I’ve scored a lot of goals and a lot of points in the league. I still feel I can be a contributor in a very good team’s top six. I’m going to get an opportunity on a team that’s hungry to win and hungry to be a top team. I’ve got to prove it.â€

Staal admits the past few years in Raleigh, where he won a Stanley Cup in 2006, wore on him because the Hurricanes were a rebuilding, budget team.

I was primed to expect some salt based on posts here...but these comments seem fair/honest to me...almost boilerplate material player interviews in similar situations.

 

[Joe McGrath]

DeCock mentioned it briefly:



Basically said that the main reason his production had declined is because the Hurricanes are bad. He conveniently glazed over the fact that he was a non-factor in NYR's Playoff run and that is the primary reason he wasn't even worth $4 million in the Free Agent market.

You aren't holding up that quote to mean that are you?

What did you expect him to say to a question of why his production dropped? "I'm all done, too bad you damn fools signed me to a 3 year contract"?

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

He basically said what bledd has been saying for years. We aren't a cap team, so we can pay estaalo top dollar, but then ha e to put larose and stewart with him.

That said, I agree with bleed. If you have nothing nice to say, font sat anything at all.

(Of course, I won't get mad unless he starts taking shots at the market)

 

[GoldiFox]

You aren't holding up that quote to mean that are you?

What did you expect him to say to a question of why his production dropped? "I'm all done, too bad you damn fools signed me to a 3 year contract"?

I think the $3.5 million he was signed to already said the latter.

My point is that his logic is faulty. The Cap and complimentary players doesn't explain why his production bottomed out last year. He played his worst on a Playoff team that is well known for spending money. He finished the regular season with 6 points in 20 games and 0 points in 5 playoff games. Hard to blame Carolina for that.

Put another way, he had a prime opportunity to prove that Carolina was the one holding him back. He may have proved the opposite, that Carolina was holding him up. Kind of weak to display that and then publicly blame Carolina.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I think the $3.5 million he was signed to already said the latter.

My point is that his logic is faulty. The Cap and complimentary players doesn't explain why his production bottomed out last year. He played his worst on a Playoff team that is well known for spending money. He finished the regular season with 6 points in 20 games and 0 points in 5 playoff games. Hard to blame Carolina for that.

Put another way, he had a prime opportunity to prove that Carolina was the one holding him back. He may have proved the opposite, that Carolina was holding him up. Kind of weak to display that and then publicly blame Carolina.

In the end, no one really cares.

I mean, he could have owned his crappy numbers and said "I've got more than I showed last year." He sorta did that and sorta didn't. Big deal. No one cares except for Wild fans, who are eager to think the best of their new toy, and Canes fans, who came over many years to expect the worst anyway. (And Rangers fans who say good riddance.)

 

[StormCast]

He made big bucks and now he is passing the buck.

His comments were basically that he wasn't put in a position to succeed due to cap constraints and the team's emphasis on younger players. What he forgets is that his whopping salary hampered some additions and that his role as C was to help develop some of the younger players and lead by example. His C rated and F in that regard.

Now he can return to the scene of the crime in Minny, literally.

 

[Ole Gil]

I don't see what people are complaining about.

For years, people have been bashing JR as incompetent and PK as cheap. Now Eric says the team was cheap, and the roster wasn't good enough to succeed, and folks are acting like it's some out of left field revelation.

Let Seidenberg walk, bring back Aaron Ward.
Let Erik Cole walk, bring in Stewart?
Let Ray Whitney walk, bring in Ponikarovsky?
Let Cullen walk, bring in Stephen Yelle?

I don't remember all the names of the trash forwards they tried to replace the few productive players with, but the key pattern was Don't resign a guy for 4 million, when instead sign 2 bums for 1.5 million each to replace him.

And when they did spend it was Gleason, Ruutu, Pitkanen, Kaberle, and Semin.

Every year, all the guys the Canes don't resign can't get NHL contracts.

The franchise has been trash for a while now. Truth hurts, but it's pretty accurate. And it was not because Eric made 8.5m when he probably should have been making 7 or 7.5.

 

[NotOpie]

Not sure it's true that he was always saddled with bad wingers either. For the bulk of his career he had at least one, or some combination of Cole, Stillman, Ruutu or Whitney when those players were good, then he had the Tlusty-Semin combo later on. Those are perfectly capable complementary wingers.

Now, I'll agree that if you're playing with LaRose and a broken-down Ruutu, that's crap and you shouldn't expect much. But that wasn't the norm over the course of his career, either. Brindy often did more with just one decent winger (whether that was J.Will, Cole or whoever) and a plugger than Staal did with good offensive players on both sides of him.

Well truth be told Eric was a 70+ point guy when he had those guys on his wings. He was on a 90 point pace during the lockout. Semin and Staal both made Tlusty better that season. The next year he had a broken down Alex Semin (wrist injury) and a Jiri Tlusty who got concussed in pre-season on his line. His numbers suffered. Plus, wasn't that the year he came back from the Edler slew-foot? Things went down hill from there. The last two years he should have performed better if the issue was linemates but he still got saddled with Chris Terry and Nathan Gerbe from time to time.

Eric didn't really say anything untrue; his timing was poorly chosen, that's all.

 

[Roboturner913]

Well truth be told Eric was a 70+ point guy when he had those guys on his wings. He was on a 90 point pace during the lockout. Semin and Staal both made Tlusty better that season. The next year he had a broken down Alex Semin (wrist injury) and a Jiri Tlusty who got concussed in pre-season on his line. His numbers suffered. Plus, wasn't that the year he came back from the Edler slew-foot? Things went down hill from there. The last two years he should have performed better if the issue was linemates but he still got saddled with Chris Terry and Nathan Gerbe from time to time.

Eric didn't really say anything untrue; his timing was poorly chosen, that's all.

I was pointing out that times when he did not have good linemates is largely a false narrative. Sure, there were some times when it was true, but those were the exceptions, not the norm, and were generally because of injuries, not the team's lack of effort in acquiring players.

somebody with a better memory can probably fill this in a little more thoroughly, but a rough approximation of his linemates from 05-06 to 08-09 is Cole and Stillman, then some combination of Whitney, Ruutu and Cole (after Cole was reacquired specifically to help Staal IIRC).

Still had Cole and Ruutu in 9-10 but both were hurt. (Is that the club's fault? No.), In 10-11 Skinner came along, with Ruutu, Cole and Jokinen still solid productive players, then they reacquired Stillman in for a playoff push.

The 11-12 season was obviously crap on a stick, but they quickly moved to fix that prior to 12-13 by signing Semin and trading for Jordan Staal, and Tlusty became productive.

so you've got maybe a two year period (13-14 and 14-15) where Semin, Tlusty and Ruutu all fell off the map around the same time, and then 14-15 started the rebuild.

If anything, I'd say they have mostly catered to Eric over the years, he almost always had two productive wingers to work with, to the point where they even re-acquired guys he was comfortable with to play on his line. This whole narrative about him not having good enough players to play with over the years is a bunch of bullcrap and a recent development because the team was in decline and need of a rebuild, not because they were too cheap.

 

[DaveG]

I wouldn't even say the past couple years. Two years ago he still had Semin and Tlusty, albeit two versions of which were broken down through no fault of Erics.

Last season he was with Versteeg almost the entire year, with one of Lindholm (no room to complain), PDG, or McGinn usually filling that other slot. I can see SOME room to complain with the later two but most of the season it was Lindholm.

The only year that he really can have this complaint with is 11-12 when his linemates were typically LaRose and either Poni or a breaking down Ruutu.

Every other year his linemates have been Cole, Stillman, Samsonov, Whitney, healthy Ruutu. Those guys aren't crap linemates.

If he had just left it at "well, Carolina is going through a rebuild and they just decided to move in another direction" and left it at that there would be MINIMAL complaints about that. I don't even get the complaint about us not being a cap team, PK showed he was willing to spend when the team was in a position to compete (06, assumed 09-10 but oops). To say that he wasn't given linemates to work with is disingenuous. Rutherford did everything in his power to keep Eric happy here, and it's not until Francis came in and basically had to rebuild from the absolute mess that Rutherford left trying to keep Eric happy that things changed.

Again, complaining about linemates etc, is just sour grapes. Just say "they wanted to go in a different direction" and move the **** on. Don't bring up "cap team" 4 (if not more) ****ing times in the same Sportsnet interview.

 

[The Stranger]

Again, complaining about linemates etc, is just sour grapes. Just say "they wanted to go in a different direction" and move the **** on. Don't bring up "cap team" 4 (if not more) ****ing times in the same Sportsnet interview.

I haven't seen any quote from him where he complained about his linemates...if there is one, please post it.

Regardless of what people think about E.Staal, I think most here know that the roster has not been good.

Why all of a sudden folks are taking umbrage with an imaginary slight is funny...it's like people wake up looking for something to be offended by.

 

[HisIceness]

I hold no ill will towards Eric and what he said. Like someone else pointed out, we got a Cup out of it, got to see score the game 7 winner on Marty Brodeur, see him win Olmpyic Gold, and other memories. This is not a case where the guy is completely trashing his old team and city.

It's just disappointing the guy never really lived up to his potential here. He could have very easily been a 50 goal scorer, and top ten player in the league, but more times than not he played like he was just going through the motions. Obviously it would have helped if he had better players on his wing instead of a one year wonder line of Semin and Tlusty, but even then it seemed like his heart was not 100% in it.

It is what it is, we got a pretty good return for him and he gets a fresh start in Minnesota. No hard feelings.

 

[Roboturner913]

I haven't seen any quote from him where he complained about his linemates...if there is one, please post it.

Regardless of what people think about E.Staal, I think most here know that the roster has not been good.

Why all of a sudden folks are taking umbrage with an imaginary slight is funny...it's like people wake up looking for something to be offended by.

I would've disagreed with those folks who said the roster was not good then, too. Were they Cup good? No, but they were playoff caliber most of the time.

Up until 14-15, what was keeping this from at least being a semi-yearly playoff team was not the roster. There have been other teams around the league that did more with less.

JR may have run the team into the ground by continually trading away futures and prospects, but it's hard to argue from one year to the next for most of Eric's career he tried to put together a team that could be competitive in the present.