Speculation: Next Blue to have their number retired?

[Brian39]

Club ran Hull out of town. Made no real effort to re-sign him. They offered Petro richest contract in franchise history and he turned it down.

The Blues offered Hull a 3 year, $15M contract. That would have been the first time the Blues had ever paid a player $5M in a season. Excluding Hull's previous deal, the team had never paid any player more than $3.5M in any given season. Hull's previous 5 year deal (that was signed following 4 consecutive 100+ point seasons) was worth slightly more total dollars, but only because it was for 5 years rather than 3. The AAV was $3.7M. Hull wanted a NTC and they refused to offer one. He left and signed with Dallas for 3 years at $17M.

The Blues for sure offered Petro an 8 year, $61.6M contract with partial trade/move protection. The full details of the clauses were never confirmed, but Army confirmed that it wasn't a full NMC. It is rumored that the Blues at some point upped their offer to $8M per season and we can safely assume that this number still would have been on an 8 year deal. I have no reason to disbelieve this and I'd wager that 8x8 was the final offer. He left and signed with Vegas for a 7 year, $61.6M contract with a full NMC. It is either identical total money to what the Blues offered or it is $2.4M shy of the rumored $8M AAV offer. Either way, the AAV of $8.8M is noticeably higher and he is able to earn all the money in 1 fewer year.

It is ridiculous to look at these two situations and act like the team ran one out of town but laid down the red carpet for the other. In both cases, the team made a very strong financial offer that was close to the financials offered on the open market. In both cases, the contract would have made it clear that the player was the cornerstone of the franchise as its highest paid player. In both cases, the team was unwilling to give the trade protection the player wanted. And in both cases, the player decided to go with another team who was willing to offer the things he wanted. In both cases, the well-reported sticking point was the player wanting a more robust movement clause. The situations are remarkably similar. Either the team ran both players out of town or both players turned down decent offers for better ones.

 

[Brian39]

What the f*** are you talking about the last few years are a "bump in the road"? Do you mean his poor performance and stats? Cus the dude had serious medical issues and it's not like he just had a bad year.

It wasn't my quote, but I don't think an individual needs to have done something wrong for a period of turmoil to accurately be described as a bump in the road. No one needs to be at fault to acknowledge that the last 1-2 years have been a bumpy road between Tarasenko and the organization. The relationship was obviously damaged to the point that he very publicly tried to get himself off the team. If that fence gets mended and he spends several more productive years here, we'll look back at that stretch as a bump in the road rather than the period that ended the relationship.

The vast majority of long term relationships have bumps in the road and are very often not caused by one party failing in any objectively wrong or evil way. When the relationship doesn't survive, you point to those as irreconcilable differences. When the relationship survives, you look back at those times as bumps in the road.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Hull had plenty of say in being run out of town. He wasn’t exactly out for anyone else but himself. There was a reason many called him the golden brat.

wasn't there rumors going around that both Keenan and Q wanted him traded/gone from the team?

 

[joe galiba]

wasn't there rumors going around that both Keenan and Q wanted him traded/gone from the team?

What fine people they both turned out to be