Kevin Shattenkirk healthy scratch tonight.

[Kamiccolo]

Wherever a millionaire hockey player plays, he's going to have an incredibly high quality of life for him.and his family. Work life balance won't differ from team to team. Not to mention most players retire young enough (early 30s) that they can move where they want after retirement.

There's certain factors like weather, or pressure of fans and media (Toronto, Montreal), but ultimately when someone is making millions, there's not much difference between two cities.

These guys retire young and can also maintain residences in multiple cities. There's almost no rational reason to leave 10s of millions on the table. Maybe family proximity, but even that can be overcome (private airfare, relocating family) when someone makes 7M USD.

That has nothing to do with whether I believe someone should live their life to maximize every dollar.

Just to note being a Toronto/Montreal team is a good thing for some guys if they want the media exposure. You don't want to play there when they are bad but when they are good you are a god. If you are a guy who feasts on the fame aspect of it and want all the perks of being a celebrity it's a good place for you. Most recently Panarin is rumored to not like CBJ because he doesn't get recognized and wants to go to a team where he can be a star.

Then you get endorsement deals for extra money on top.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

I just think it’s so incredibly naive to think that money solves life problems like that and that “there’s not much difference between cities when someone is making millions.”

Can’t even remotely imagine a scenario where my son says “X City is offering me a lot but I hate the city, it’s far away from everyone, it’s not where I want to lay down roots, and I don’t like the team/management” and I tell my son “All cities are pretty much the same when you’ve got cash, so don’t leave anything on the table.”

I don't know how you'd get "money solves all life's problems" from my post. I never said that.

The reality is that someone making 7 million US a year has an incredible opportunity to equalize against any of the reasons to live in a specific city fairly easily. I don't understand what is so ridiculous about that notion.

I am not saying there are zero sacrifices that are made, but when we're talking about leaving 8 figures worth of income on the table, there isn't enough difference between living in two cities as an athlete to justify that approach.

 

[Calad]

The "Hometown" discount I am sure he regrets now. He could have gotten 2-3 years longer on a deal elsewhere.

You would think of all fans in the league the Leafs fan would understand that after earning so much money some things speak louder than it, pajamas for example

 

[Goose]

I don't know how you'd get "money solves all life's problems" from my post. I never said that.

The reality is that someone making 7 million US a year has an incredible opportunity to equalize against any of the reasons to live in a specific city fairly easily. I don't understand what is so ridiculous about that notion.

I am not saying there are zero sacrifices that are made, but when we're talking about leaving 8 figures worth of income on the table, there isn't enough difference between living in two cities as an athlete to justify that approach.

Your argument is that where you live/work doesn’t matter when you have that much money, that you should make a decision where to live/work solely based upon money when you are a millionaire, as if 45 million versus 60 million really matters that much.

Dunno, absolutely ridiculous to me, guess we will just say agree to disagree.

 

[Thread The Needle]

The title should've been "we need to talk about Kevin".

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Your argument is that where you live/work doesn’t matter when you have that much money, that you should make a decision where to live/work solely based upon money when you are a millionaire, as if 45 million versus 60 million really matters that much.

Dunno, absolutely ridiculous to me, guess we will just say agree to disagree.

The after tax difference between 49 million in Tampa Bay vs 26.6 million in New York is huge. Even disregarding that, we're talking about over 22 million that he left on the table. In relative terms, I think he'd have to face a ton of hardship living in Tampa VS New York to justify losing out on that kind of money.

My argument is that when it comes to NHLers, there is not a major difference in quality of life from city to city, and because most of them retire in their early to mid 30s, only work for the team for half the year (depending on playoffs), and have immense resources, they can equalize against the negatives of not living in their ideal city. A normal person doesn't have the resources to do that, an NHLer making 7M per season does.

I don't think it's a ridiculous notion, but I agree that we'll have to agree to disagree here.

 

[aufheben]

From an outside perspective, everything about this situation seems fine.

Contract actually sort of makes sense for rebuild mode and sitting him sort of makes sense too.

They're both non-issues.

The worst free agent signing by NYR since every other free agent signing by NYR.

You guys lost the rights to this dig after the Kovalchuk contract.