I remember. Recall it was 50/50 among the HF'ers whether or not to sign him. And when he got signed the majority was like over payment! In hindsight, not an over payment.
Around here we end up around 50/50 on signing nearly anyone.
I mean in the media, I don't remember a lot of talk. Not like with Suter, anyway.
Signing Ehrhoff for five years wasn't going to prevent the prospects from playing.
That is Kindl's job. His contract is untradeable. Who wants a #6-7 defenseman for three more years, at 2.5 million a year? You can find 50 Kindl's through FA or within a teams own prospect pool.
Giving Ehrhoff a five year deal was a win/win scenario. Proven offensive defenseman who would turn 37 when his contract expired. It would also give you a security net in case the kids didn't live up to the hype.
Now the kids either deliver or the defense ends up completely imploding.
You are better off waiving Kindl and signing Ehrhoff for five years.
A three year offer was awful. What kind of value is Ehrhoff going to have when he is 35 on a Wings team that could end up being very bad? Wings were forcing Ehrhoff to take all the risk. At that point, a one year deal with Pitt was a no brainer.
Five years wouldn't have hurt us at all, and we shouldn't have held back from offering that. At the same time, we don't know if Ehrhoff was looking for a five year deal, after his stint in Buffalo bombed and he found himself in the cellar. I think Ehrhoff's one year deal caught a number of people a bit off-guard.
I don't remember personal issues per se, but then against was a few years ago.
Thought it was that he said the Wings and Holland were cheap and low balled FA's.
And he would have had a point back then.
Same. I remember him barking about us being cheap.
eklund says that chances for myers being trade earlier were around 20% but now they are up to 50%. red wings pushing the hardest.
I have to echo Fugu's question from another thread: why? The guy is young, still a top pairing quality guy, and there isn't much there if he's moved. their blueline will be anchored by Gorges and a bunch of kids?
Two weeks later and some people are still too dense to understand the reason for Ehrhoff's buyout.
Wiz we never even got a shot at. Montreal traded his rights and Columbus had him signed to a deal 48hrs later.
though that could be seen as another Holland short-coming. He has been wholly reluctant to move an asset for a player's rights before free agency. It matters a bit less now, since it seems players are willing to wait and take advantage of that time before free agency where they can test the waters with other teams, but if Holland had been a bit more pro-active, maybe he could have grabbed Ehrhoff's rights before Buffalo got a hold of them. A lot of what ifs in that, though.
As long as we're just blindly speculating I'll say he'd have taken his time and signed in Minnesota to be with his bff Zach anyway.
My impression has always been that Suter was playing us off Minny, just trying to goad them into a bigger deal. I thought it was reported we were the high bidder twice before Suter got someone else to up their bids, and I don't think it's a coincidence that he always allowed someone to respond to our bid, but shut off his phone the moment he got what he thought was the most he could get from Minny.
