At issue is Article 13.23 of the collective bargaining agreement, which states that a professional or former professional player that played in a league outside North America after the start of the NHL regular season must clear waivers before playing in the NHL that same season.
The NHL declined to clarify whether O’Reilly would have had to clear waivers if the Avalanche refused to match Calgary’s offer sheet.
“We agree with the Flames in the sense that the entire issue has become an academic point,†NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to The Canadian Press. “Ryan O’Reilly has signed a contract with the Colorado Avalanche and the contract has been registered. We have nothing further to say on the subject.â€
I see it that Feaster was doing the Avs a favor. No suprise Feaster was in Colorado the day (and the day before) the offer sheet was signed and matched
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...rk-before-oreilly-offer-sheet/article9226312/
The worst situation would be, according to this, that O'Reilly would not have been able to play this season.
I would rather take word of Bobby Mac, who simply put that Flames were obligated to put him on waivers (even if they didn't intend to play him this season).
At issue is Article 13.23 of the collective bargaining agreement, which states that a professional or former professional player that played in a league outside North America after the start of the NHL regular season must clear waivers before playing in the NHL that same season.
While Article 13:23 in the pre-2012-13 CBA specified that any player who plays in Europe after start of NHL regular season needs to clear waivers to play in the same season in the NHL, the recent Memorandum of Understanding between the league and Players' Association says all players on a club's reserve list and RFA list will be exempt from the application of 13:23.
Therefore, teams can now sign their own restricted free agents or draft picks out of Europe in mid-season and get them into their NHL lineup without risking them being plucked off the wire.
I think this looks worse on the Avs. They had two options..
1. Used the loophole as leverage against ROR and anounced it to the league, since Calgary wasn't the only team that didn't know it.
2. Used it as leverage to get more out of Calgary.
once ROR signed the offersheet there was no getting more from calgary nor did it give Colorado leveage on ROR as he cant sign a different contract, after ROR signed the offersheet the only thing Colorado could do was match or take the built in compensation the CBA states they get for the contract offered.
the only possible outcome is colorado could have went to columbus and got them to give them something extra to not match so they could claim him being the team with the worst record and would get first dibs on players who go to waivers.
Notice that the offer sheet was only for two years. Seems unusually short term. By matching it, the Avs are not allowed to trade ROR for a year.
It looks like the Avs just bought themselves some time to try convincing him to sign long term. If they can't convince him, they can auction him off next time around.
I feel like there are details of this whole situation that are never going to be 'official'.
What would have happened if the Leafs traded for his rights?
Isn't there a whole bunch here who wanted the Leafs to trade Gardiner+ for his rights?
Even though what Calgary needs is a centreman, I wonder if Nonis doesn't pick up the phone and trade a 1st and the 3rd and toss Kessel and someone else. I mean they're clearly happy to just almost give it away to Colorado for NOTHING - at least this way they'd have a winger.