Wow, Nick Kypreos got that one wrong. He was right that the Pen's would not sign him. But wrong on the reason. Said that Cooke would sign somewhere for big bucks. And Pen's simply could not afford him.
Cooke really signed for a modest amount. And considering the other deals we did, the term was fine as well.
Our management just didn't want him here any longer. Because his deal was not extreme in the least.
Well, no surprise Kypper got something wrong. The guy is entertaining at times, but he's a tool and inaccurate a lot, too. He's a mere small step up from Glen Healey.
But Cooke did get a pretty significant pay raise on this deal. Based on a lot of the different spreadsheets/permutations of the line-up I did (with Iginla, without, ditto for Brooks or Nisky, etc.), I just couldn't make a scenario work to keep Cooke at anything above the $1.8 that he's currently making to $2million, which is fair and about as far as I would go as a pay increase, especially after Dupuis getting such a big one. If Dupers got less or we cut bait with another player, then perhaps we could have met that deal. But...
I think this could indicate a good sign here: that Shero still is eyeing an upgrade at forward by adding another top-9 player. I didn't want to lose Cooke per se, and I don't mind losing Kennedy, and even losing Iginla stings after what we gave up. But as long as we do add another top-9 forward, I won't have any issues with this at all. If we can move out Jokinen (the fall-back option as I suspect), AND a Dman like Nisky or even Orpik, we would then have some pretty significant cap space to use.
Also, I think the 3rd year was a deal breaker for us, too, which does amount to a fairly substantial monetary discrepancy between what the Pens were likely offering vs Minny. We may not have much in the way of high-end talented forwards in the pipeline, but we do have guys (i.e. Archibald & Rust), who could be very good 3rd liners within 2-3 years. Giving Cooke a little more for 2 years, or giving him a 3rd year to extend him for what he's making now are two things I would have seriously considered. But $2.5 for 3 years of Cooke, as much as I love him: I'd have to agree with Shero on this one with letting him go.
But yes, he certainly should be appreciated. Good thread, and good luck in Minny.
Let's give Cooke the props and move to the other threads.
