He answered.
Question:
@Aportzline help me out.You repeatedlyreported Horton contract was insured and Cam was set to be a RFA.Now report no insurance and UFA. Why?
Answers:
Aaron Portzline @Aportzline · 4m 4 minutes ago
.@jeeco13 (1) We asked, were led to believe, and never corrected that Horton's contract was insured. Club very secretive. Only on trade ...
Aaron Portzline @Aportzline · 4m 4 minutes ago
.@jeeco13 (2) day did club say that Horton was never insured. As for Atkinson ... never said he was a UFA. RFA for one more year.
Aaron Portzline @Aportzline · 3m 3 minutes ago
.@jeeco13 Ah. I see error in today's story. Fixing. Don't know how that happened.
This actually still raises questions. "We asked and were led to believe" does not necessarily mean lied to and the choice of wording is interesting. It could be a simple matter of sloppiness in reporting. By way of example, if the question was asked "do you insure players" the person being asked can truthfully answer "yes." The Jackets do insure players. They just don't insure ALL players. Additionally, if you ask the question to the janitor he might say "yeah, I'm pretty sure we insure all of those guys." But the janitor has no basis to have knowledge of such matters, so he isn't a source you should rely on in the first place. The word "we" is also interesting. If Porty himself didn't ask the question and get the answer and instead an intern asked and misinterpreted the answer it changes whether it was a flat out lie or a communication breakdown.
Porty's reporting since the trade has still been riddled with sloppiness enough to make me question whether he was lied to or whether he misinterpreted what he was told in the first place.
Example:
Why no insurance?
Horton arrived with a pre-existing condition -- a chronically separated shoulder -- that could not be covered by insurance, and they knew Horton would miss more than half a season as he rehabilitated following surgery.
The club opted not to buy insurance for the rest of Horton's body and appendages because it would have been impossible for any other illness or injury to cost him half a season. The shoulder had already put him over the threshold.
Lori Schmidt and I have discussed this back and forth as the story didn't make sense. As it turns out, the Jackets couldn't get insurance on "the rest of Horton's body and appendages." What she has been told after asking sources within the team is that the reason that Horton wasn't insured was because of the number and nature of the exclusions from coverage. In other words, it wasn't just the shoulder that was excluded though it is not clear what else might have been excluded. I suspect head injuries were excluded based on Horton's prior history. As such, someone looked at the situation and determined "ah, heck, what would the insurance really cover that could be career ending," or something along those lines.
Portzline incorrectly focused on the shoulder and the fact that Horton was going to be out half the season, etc. The fact that Horton was going to be out half the season was probably brought up in passing in the litany of reasons why Horton went uninsured, but it is a red herring. It was the exclusions from coverage that drove the decision not to insure Horton and instead use the league provided insurance on another player.
None of this answers the bigger question--did the Jackets consider this when they signed Horton in the first place? Knowing that this is a budget team, if you also know a player is effectively uninsurable, the contract is a huge risk when you factor in Horton's age and injury history.
Whether Aaron failed to ask the right questions or he was flat out lied to, it instills no confidence in his reporting. If your sources are trolling you, how can you be relied upon as "the source" for Blue Jackets news? The lack of quality of Portzline's sources was more evident in recent days in how stridently he insisted that Atkinson was a goner who didn't fit the teams plans, etc. leading up to the deadline only to have the team sign him for 3 more years. This goes beyond a team simply keeping its cards close to the vest. Portzline's sources are either too removed from the decision makers or don't respect him enough to avoid putting him a situation that impacts his credibility.