General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

Hoags wrote:

PKC wrote:This is a fantastic article that should bring people up to speed on the situation:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/agent-rips-capitals-for-backing-out-of-belanger-deal/article1708426/

I followed that story. It looks pretty pretty bad on Washington. I believe the NHL only recognizes signed/written contracts so in the league's opinion they did nothing wrong. There might be legal consequences if he decides to sue.

It sounds like the Caps were trying to make a trade to make a room. That trade fell through but they were so sure it would happen that they had him prepare to stay in Washington.

Since Belanger had nothing in writing, at some point in the summer he should've just solicited offers elsewhere, regardless of what the Caps said. I'm surprised he didn't do that.

I believe he can bring a civil lawsuit against the Washington Capitals for breaching a verbal agreement to pay for impending goods and services.

The easiest way to look at it from a business perspective would be like what happened with the City of Ottawa and Siemens when council backed out of the original LRT proposal. That was still at the verbal stage as no contract for services had been signed, but Siemens easily won that lawsuit because of the impression of the contract being done and waiting for final approval.

Wow, I just read that article/e-mail and the Caps organization looks very, very poor right now. Real shady stuff there MacPhee. Karma is always looking for an opportunity to even the score.

PKC wrote:
I believe he can bring a civil lawsuit against the Washington Capitals for breaching a verbal agreement to pay for impending goods and services.

Is it worth the trouble ? His family has been horribly inconvenienced having to pull up stakes in Washington and move to Phoenix. I don't think the Capitals intended to do this to him, it sounds like they counted on their chickens before they hatched.

Still he should've just signed with Phoenix earlier since he had nothing in writing. Caps kept saying 'next week', at some point he should've just said 'Cuss it' and go elsewhere.

The more I read about this - the worse it is. I used to be neutral about the Caps, now I hate them. I look forward to seeing them beaten in the playoffs because they're not gritty enough.

Hoags wrote:

PKC wrote:
I believe he can bring a civil lawsuit against the Washington Capitals for breaching a verbal agreement to pay for impending goods and services.

Is it worth the trouble ? His family has been horribly inconvenienced having to pull up stakes in Washington and move to Phoenix. I don't think the Capitals intended to do this to him, it sounds like they counted on their chickens before they hatched.

Still he should've just signed with Phoenix earlier since he had nothing in writing. Caps kept saying 'next week', at some point he should've just said 'Cuss it' and go elsewhere.

There's a progression to the time line though that starts taking out the possibility of playing elsewhere. He was moving out of his old house in Minnesota (?) into a newly leased house in Washington that team reps had helped him secure. His children were being registered for private schools in the area.

As for the civil suit, I believe it is worth it. He went from an alleged $1.85-million one-year deal to a $750,000 one-year deal. That's a difference of $1.1 million. Given the way that he plays, it's also a possibility that he could be injured in a way that could either end his career during the course of the season or affect his ability to receive a considerable contract for next season.

Those are all things you have to think about.

SpezDispenser wrote:The more I read about this - the worse it is. I used to be neutral about the Caps, now I hate them. I look forward to seeing them beaten in the playoffs because they're not gritty enough.

What's fascinating is how candid the e-mail is. I've never been privy before to an e-mail that shows that explicitly the inner workings of the NHL.

I also find it highly interesting that there was a deal that never fabricated, supposedly involving at least one player (potentially a center).

The time line of the e-mail also suggests that the Belanger contract/impending trade were right after the Fleischmann signing and right before the Sami Salo injury. Not sure if either has anything to do with the trade.

As an aside, I just checked CapGeek and it says that Washington has $5.3+ million in cap space. Way more than what he was asking for, and I would be pretty hard-pressed to believe that they operate with an internal cap.

PKC wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:The more I read about this - the worse it is. I used to be neutral about the Caps, now I hate them. I look forward to seeing them beaten in the playoffs because they're not gritty enough.

What's fascinating is how candid the e-mail is. I've never been privy before to an e-mail that shows that explicitly the inner workings of the NHL.

I also find it highly interesting that there was a deal that never fabricated, supposedly involving at least one player (potentially a center).

The time line of the e-mail also suggests that the Belanger contract/impending trade were right after the Fleischmann signing and right before the Sami Salo injury. Not sure if either has anything to do with the trade.

I think that has a lot to do with a trade that was being completed - plus, do the Caps even have a 2nd line center?

The agent must still have all the correspondence by e-mail and text, and while there's no "official" contract, there seems to be a written agreement.

Remember the Nylander controversy in which he had agreed to a contract with the Oilers, then decided to sign with Washington? Look how that turned out for Washington, and the huge sigh of relief that Oilers must have let out after dodging that headache.

Dash wrote:The agent must still have all the correspondence by e-mail and text, and while there's no "official" contract, there seems to be a written agreement.

Remember the Nylander controversy in which he had agreed to a contract with the Oilers, then decided to sign with Washington? Look how that turned out for Washington, and the huge sigh of relief that Oilers must have let out after dodging that headache.

Remember when those pinheads took Petr Nedved off waivers right in front of us and forced us to acquire the MUCH better Mike Comrie?

Kind of OT there, but I thought of that when you wrote that.

That's not really a big deal - smart on their part. They got a free player so they could trade a pending UFA of higher value. Who wouldn't do that?

Dash wrote:That's not really a big deal - smart on their part. They got a free player so they could trade a pending UFA of higher value. Who wouldn't do that?

No, we got Comrie from Phoenix and Nedved went on to become an unmitigated disaster for Edmonton. Karma man!*




*which is what I think is coming for the Caps.

Oh yeah, haha, I totally forgot... Edmonton, Philly, Phoenix, Ottawa, NYI, Ottawa, Edmonton, Pittsburgh... Where did Nedved come from prior to being picked up by Edmonton?

Dash wrote:Oh yeah, haha, I totally forgot... Edmonton, Philly, Phoenix, Ottawa, NYI, Ottawa, Edmonton, Pittsburgh... Where did Nedved come from prior to being picked up by Edmonton?

I actually know his story very well. He defected from the Czech Republic (with Gretzky love and comparisons attached to his skill set) and went straight to Seattle in the WHL. From there, Vancouver drafted him very high in the first round of the NHL draft. As far as your Edmonton question goes, he played for a lot of teams before Edmonton traded for him. The Blues, Rangers and Penguins are the ones I remember off the top of my head without trying to think to much, but I think there was one after those teams as well.

SpezDispenser wrote:
*which is what I think is coming for the Caps.

I'm sure they'll do real well in the season and flop in the playoffs again.

SpezDispenser wrote:It just sucks for Staal that Sather's dart landed on the 4 million range. I bet that was one intense dart game that finally decided Staal's salary.

just another note on this stall story... it also means the NYR are over the cap by 4 mill... does this mean mr redden takes a trip to the minors? i feel bad for him, how can you turn down that kind of money? it also seals his fate in him probably never seeing the NHL again. unless he's amazing in the AHL. i'm sure if he would of taken a 3mill offer there wouldn't be any thoughts of him being sent down. oh well he's got money to buy himself a kleenex

Dash wrote:Oh yeah, haha, I totally forgot... Edmonton, Philly, Phoenix, Ottawa, NYI, Ottawa, Edmonton, Pittsburgh... Where did Nedved come from prior to being picked up by Edmonton?

The Rangers. Kind of a neat story in retrospect. We miss Nedved by one team on the waiver wire, so Muckler is forced to go and get someone else - and it happened to be Mike Comrie and he fit here very well, while Nedved wasn't very good.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=333963

Supposedly Gionta to be named captain of the Habs