Re: WGN Reporting Turco signed for $1.75 per. Niemi also si
[quote name="Maiden"]
tHATS NOT DEMANDING? wtf ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.
ISNT SIGNING AN OFFER SHEET FROM ANOTHER CLUB SLIGHTLY WORSE THAN TAKING YOUR CURRENT CLUB TO ARBITRATION? ANYTIME YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT APPLES AND ORANGES BANANAS BULLSHIT, ILL JUST CONTINUE READING YOUR POSTS AND ITS SPEWS OFF THE PAGE.[/quote]
Signing an offer sheet is simply figuring out your market and using that to your advantage. Hammer had no arbitration rights, so he could have held out for more money until the cows came home, he wasn't going to get it from the Hawks unless someone else ponied up. He even said that he was surprised that San Jose got involved. What do you expect him to do, turn down more money from a very competitive team in a nice lifestyle market only to take $1 million less from the Hawks per annum? Are you crazy? If the Sharks didn't get involved, Hammer would have eventually had to realize that he needed to sign for what he could get, which would have been in the $2.5 million range, probably. That's not mercenary behavior.
Niemi's however, was. He thought he was worth $4 million per year (or his agent did) and instead of not filing for arbitration and waiting for his own offer sheet, he decided to push the Hawks by having an arbitrator determine his worth. In the end, it may come back to bite him, who knows? But I view what Niemi did as far worse than what Hammer did. Hammer just sat around and waited for something to happen. Niemi played his cards and forced his destiny.