It's not over being proven. It's over NOT letting the inmates run the asylum. Pacioretty and Price both signed small deals after their ELC. Same with guys like Higgins. That's what Bergy wants. And if he wants that to be a team policy, he can't break on the very first guy he tries to sign. A couple years down the road, maybe you bend if a player is that good. However, not here.
Now if Subban wanted a long-term deal worth $4.5M or something, I'm sure Bergy would entertain that because that's fair value if Subban wants to skip his RFA years. But the rumored $6M over 8-years is completely ridiculous at this point, especially with the cap going down and having to sign Desharnais next year.
Well, that's contradictory. You can't say Bergy wants to put forth a team structure, and he needs to stand on his ground because if he budges now, it simply looks bad on him. In other words, he will stick to his 2y bridge contract idea. But then say, if PK wanted an 8y deal at 4.5M, he would agree to it because it's an amazing deal.
It's either one or the other. If Bergy is open to a long term deal, then the problem is they haven't agreed on a number, it has nothing to do with team structure.
All in all, if this bridge contract idea is true, I think it's stupid.
You are saying it's principle vs logic. Logic would tell you, PK is already a star and is only going to get better, so sign him long term now for cheaper.
Principle, everybody needs to follow a 2y bridge contract.
It's just dumb. Sign the kid already, he's your best player, and the only leverage you have is he's a RFA. Creating a rift between management and your star player this early in your tenure is just dumb.
Also, from what the fans have demonstrated yesterday, it seems there's more chances of Bergevin creating a rift between him and the fans more so than PK and the fans.
Cmon man !!! Staubitz is NO Prust. Either you haven't seen what Prusty brings to the table or you are just guessing.
Of course he's no Prust. Prust is a 3rd-4th liner, but he still isn't worth 4y at 2.5M.
Prust is more of a Moen type than a Staubitz. But point was, you give Staubitz the boxing duties, and look for a cheaper Prust type the following year. Instead of overpaying so much.
I'm not saying Prust is worth his cap hit, he probably won't be from a pure value standpoint, but they had to overpay to get him. He adds a dimension of balls/grit/toughness that the team needed. Staubitz is as good a fighter, but he can't play a regular shift. Prust is reliable defensively, plays an "energy" role and can kill pemalities.
Of course they had to overpay, we always have to overpay, that's the point.
But apparently, for arguably our best player, that doesn't apply, and simply because he's a RFA. Let's not look at how he's performed and where he is on our depth chart. No, all of this is irrelevant. All that matters is he's a RFA.