grapeshine said:
Well put. I mean, this board is full of dilettantes who somehow think that they are smarter than most of the GMs in the league. Doug Maclean signed Nash to this contract for a reason. He didn't arbitrarily pick a number out of the air. There's an entire negotiating process that none of us witnessed, so who knows what took place behind the scenes while the contract intricacies were being worked out. Obviously Maclean thinks Nash deserves the salary. You're some kind of nut if you think Maclean didn't spend any time evaluating Nash, the specific financials and how those numbers relate to team budget.
It doesn't work like that.
Nash's agent made a claim of some number for his clien't salary, my guess is that he asked pretty much the number he got (5.4 on average) and Maclean didn't fight back at all. Maclean had ALL the weapons, Nash had none.
Look at Minny; they told Gaborik to take the deal or sit-out. Gaborik took the deal because he had no choice. Maclean could have said the same, "Rick I'm offering you 3y deal with 2M per year plus 1M in bonuses if you play well. All young players go through these deals before getting the really big money. If you play really well, we can extend the deal after the 2nd year and give you more money but for now, this is what can offer".
And make no mistake, Nash would have taken that deal because he couldn't afford to sit out.
Now you say that "that would have made Nash a RFA after the new deal". That's true but even then Maclean would have had the chance of matching any deal offered by some other team or take the picks so he wouldn't have lost him if he didn't want to.
grapeshine said:
I also want to add this little bit: salary is not always based on past performance. Nash isn't getting all this money because he had two great seasons, he's getting it in part for the 4 great seasons he's going to have.
The problem is that if you score 41 goals one year doens't mean you're going to score the same or more the next 4 seasons. If you have 3 40+ seasons, then you might have a point but not now.
FACT is that Maclean overpaid heavily, there's no way around that FACT.
I have given Maclean the benefit of a doubt but along with the utterly stupid UFA deal given to Marchant I'm not so sure anymore. He's going to handcuff himself and cause lots of problems around the league with this contract. If you can't see this you're a BJ homer or otherwise ignorant.