Another thing is you don't have to look at just 1 C's available via UFA. Take the money from Staal, Ward, Gerbe, Liles, and go out and sign a couple guys like Ladd, Eriksson, Versteeg, Hudler, etc... Yeah, I know the Canes haven't done well in in free agency, but in fairness, they haven't had this much money to work with in a while either.
For example:
Eriksson/Ladd-Rask-Lindholm
Versteeg-Staal-Nestrasil
Skinner-Aho/Helm/Hudler-PDG
Nordstrom - McClement -Nash/McGinn/Malone/some AHL guy
Yeah, not all of those will happen by any means and I just did that off the top of my head so there wasn't a lot of thought going into it, but my point being that there are other options out there than just signing Eric or overpaying for some other 1C.
I need a 'undecided' vote.
RF did say they are to start negotiating/getting serious end of Jan. This one has been too close to the chest of these two and neither side is leaking anything.
"We touched base last month and agreed to touch base towards the end of this month to see where things were," Francis said.
Echoed Curran on Sunday: "We've had a number of meetings and telephone conversations since last summer, but we've never really set a critical timetable. The last time we talked, Ron suggested he'd prefer we wait until some time toward the end of January when he hoped to be in a better position to have a more meaningful discussion."
Did he say "negotiating/getting serious", or was that your interpretation (which could be right). The only thing I heard him say is "we said we'd talk again at the end of January, which I took more as "let's see where we stand" and not enter serious negotiations.
He was on SiriusXM earlier this morning. He just said that he's been in contact with Curran/Staal throughout the season and they will get deep into talks end of this month. He also said that Staal has handled this as a true professional.
From my take, they (Francis, Curran, and Staal) have touch based a few times, but no talk of salary wants have been communicated. It sounded like end of January is when Francis will find out from Curran what Staal wants and see if it's in Francis' wheelhouse or if they are far away.
Did he say "negotiating/getting serious", or was that your interpretation (which could be right). The only thing I heard him say is "we said we'd talk again at the end of January, which I took more as "let's see where we stand" and not enter serious negotiations.
BBA, a little off topic, but what kind of money do you think Andrew Ladd signs for?
I liked kopitars contract less money later on.... If Eric wants big money then he can go elsewhere.. But if he want say 6 million for two years then maybe 4 million for two more.. Then I can see him back here.....