So long Alfie... What's next?

Alfie left a lot of money on the table over the years, taking hometeam discounts to play here. I guess Murray/Melnyk kind of thought that would happen one more time, whereas I guess Alfie thought that he would finally get market value on a one year deal. It's not like he had to take less cash so we'd have more cap space. He was asked to take less cash, AGAIN, because our owner's finances are in the toilet.

We brought Clarkson in to town to romance him for a day in some hope of signing him. What did we do to sign Alfie? We offered him $4M, rejected his offer of $6M and then left it at that. Then apparently we asked him what he wanted in terms of salary. Well, you dumb female parental unit diddlers, he already told you...$6M!

Both were playing hardball with each other and with very little time before free agency, they shouldn't have been.

Anyways, I really hope alfie comes back to town for a farewell tour and to properly say goodbye to the fans. Do his interviews, get his story out, whatever he's gotta do. It would go a long way in mending the relationship and quite frankly, ottawa fans deserve a proper goodbye. Tweets won't do.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/mendes-on-senators-best-alfredsson-moments/

Great article from Mendes.

tim1_2 wrote:http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/mendes-on-senators-best-alfredsson-moments/

Great article from Mendes.  

Leaves a bit of a lump in the throat, don't it?

I see The Prages is having a nice conversation with the  on twitter

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/mendes-on-senators-best-alfredsson-moments/

Great article from Mendes.  

Leaves a bit of a lump in the throat, don't it?

It does indeed. The man is a really good person. It's more of a loss for Ottawa than it is for the Senators.

LeKing wrote:I see The Prages is having a nice conversation with the  on twitter

A bit surprised. My comment was the last one about not mentioning MacArthur and he replied to it and not any of the others. You think it's because I alluded to Gen. Douglas MacArthur? You know, with Andy being a Yank and all.

tim1_2 wrote:http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/mendes-on-senators-best-alfredsson-moments/

Great article from Mendes.  

Meh, a bit scrambled. "Moment" 9 talked about two separate events.

tim1_2 wrote:Alfie left a lot of money on the table over the years, taking hometeam discounts to play here.  I guess Murray/Melnyk kind of thought that would happen one more time, whereas I guess Alfie thought that he would finally get market value on a one year deal.  It's not like he had to take less cash so we'd have more cap space.  He was asked to take less cash, AGAIN, because our owner's finances are in the toilet.  

We brought Clarkson in to town to romance him for a day in some hope of signing him.  What did we do to sign Alfie?  We offered him $4M, rejected his offer of $6M and then left it at that.  Then apparently we asked him what he wanted in terms of salary.  Well, you dumb female parental unit diddlers, he already told you...$6M!

Do you really think $6M x 2 is market value for a 40 year old who is a 2nd line player (in the second year of the deal? probably not)?

Also, he brought a lot to the city, but the city also brought a lot to him. I know there's not much of a market for it, so it's impossible to evaluate what it's worth, but if you truly wanted it, it would take a hell of a lot more than a couple million over a dozen years to get a whole city to hero-worship you.

tim1_2 wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/mendes-on-senators-best-alfredsson-moments/

Great article from Mendes.  

Leaves a bit of a lump in the throat, don't it?

It does indeed.  The man is a really good person.  It's more of a loss for Ottawa than it is for the Senators.

I think that's the perfect way to describe it.

wprager wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Alfie left a lot of money on the table over the years, taking hometeam discounts to play here.  I guess Murray/Melnyk kind of thought that would happen one more time, whereas I guess Alfie thought that he would finally get market value on a one year deal.  It's not like he had to take less cash so we'd have more cap space.  He was asked to take less cash, AGAIN, because our owner's finances are in the toilet.  

We brought Clarkson in to town to romance him for a day in some hope of signing him.  What did we do to sign Alfie?  We offered him $4M, rejected his offer of $6M and then left it at that.  Then apparently we asked him what he wanted in terms of salary.  Well, you dumb female parental unit diddlers, he already told you...$6M!

Do you really think $6M x 2 is market value for a 40 year old who is a 2nd line player (in the second year of the deal? probably not)?

Also, he brought a lot to the city, but the city also brought a lot to him. I know there's not much of a market for it, so it's impossible to evaluate what it's worth, but if you truly wanted it, it would take a hell of a lot more than a couple million over a dozen years to get a whole city to hero-worship you.

Alfie offered $6M for one year. Murray said that number probably didn't work, and then did not come back with a counter offer.

Also, Alfie never asked the city to worship him. That just happened because we all realized how awesome he was. I think part of the ADVANTAGE to leaving, in his eyes, is probably that he'll be under less pressure in Detroit, instead of having the entire population of a city watching his every move. He's a pretty humble guy, so all the hero worship stuff likely bothered him more than he let on.

A "pretty humble guy" who said "F! No!" to $4.5M versus $5.5M?

wprager wrote:A "pretty humble guy" who said "F! No!" to $4.5M versus $5.5M?

I think the lowball offer just made him think twice. Ottawa had the opportunity right there to counter with 5.5 and they were waiting for Alfie to come down to their number.

Melnyk was hoping sentiment and nostalgia would save him a few bucks and it backfired. Alfie could have been more patient but he ran out of patience, I guess.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

wprager wrote:A "pretty humble guy" who said "F! No!" to $4.5M versus $5.5M?

I think the lowball offer just made him think twice. Ottawa had the opportunity right there to counter with 5.5 and they were waiting for Alfie to come down to their number.

Melnyk was hoping sentiment and nostalgia would save him a few bucks and it backfired. Alfie could have been more patient but he ran out of patience, I guess.

Yeah that's a fair assessment I'd say.

wprager wrote:A "pretty humble guy" who said "F! No!" to $4.5M versus $5.5M?

A pretty humble guy who got sick of leaving money on the table and taking home team discounts. This was our last chance to make up, just a little bit, for his years of dedication to the team. He left MILLIONS on the table in free agency previously, and we asked him to it AGAIN. We nickle-and-dimed him, not the other way around.

wprager wrote:A "pretty humble guy" who said "F! No!" to $4.5M versus $5.5M?

I heard this morning that he asked for 12 m for two years. Where'd you hear the 4.5 and 5.5 from. I'm really trying to figure out what went wrong here.

Alfie had 10 70+ point seasons and never made over $5M a year.

DirtyDave wrote:

wprager wrote:A "pretty humble guy" who said "F! No!" to $4.5M versus $5.5M?

I heard this morning that he asked for 12 m for two years. Where'd you hear the 4.5 and 5.5 from. I'm really trying to figure out what went wrong here.

Initially discussions were for a two year deal, but then Alfie dropped it to a one year deal, $6M. Trying to save us some dough, again.