You noticed the same thing I noticed, he signed for less than QO and is arbitration eligible next year....
I don't understand why he didn't take the QO. I think he'd get claimed on waivers as long hi contract is buriable. Freakin Stevie played some serious Jedi mind trick on the kid and his agent, lol. Granted it's only for $50k, but still has me laughing.
To be fair, I would think most players in Veleno's shoes would reject the QO in hopes of getting more. I'm guessing maybe his camp gambled that if they sat for a bit there would eventually be some favorable comparable that would insulate whatever their asking price was. I think Kupari was the closest and he recently signed a 2 year deal giving him $900k this season and $1.1M next.
I'm guessing that is the angle Stevie took to talk him into a salary lower than his QO. Stevie couldn't trade Zadina because of that ridiculous contract with $2.7M in his third year, so maybe Stevie promised to trade Joey if he doesn't get regular ice time. I don't see any other reason for Joey to stomp his own foot and take a pay cut unless he's looking to get traded.
My personal take on this is that Joey is an ideal player to have as an extra forward. League min contract, defensively responsible, throws a few hits, and plays center. Prospects like Kasper, Danielson, Mazur and Elmer don't need to sit in a pressbox. Plus roster space will be created through expiring contracts like Fabbri, Fisher, and Sprong.
If Joey doesn't return something worthwhile in a trade, Stevie might as well re-sign him for one more year then let him walk. We know Draper is just gonna waste the pick anyways.
IIRC, QO's "expire" maybe a week or two after free agency starts. I would bet Veleno and his agent let it expire. In that case, Yzerman didn't have to activate his midichlorians to trick Joey in to taking less money.
I would also bet that Yzerman probably had one of his backloaded 2 or 3 year deals available at an AAV around $1M, structured similar to the deals he gives RFA's going all the way back to Tampa (IE Rasmussen, Zadina, Lindstrom, Gudas, Vasilevskiy, etc. etc.).
Veleno's camp is probably betting that with him being a center and the Wings looking like they'll be a better team this season (thus padding Veleno's numbers a bit), they can get more next summer when Veleno has arbitration rights. So they asked for a one year instead. Since they have no leverage and the QO expired, this is what they got.
The Jedi Master that Yzerman was once a Padawan Learner under used a similar force persuasion 6 summers ago on a young fast Pod Racer named Andreas. Offering him a safe 2 year deal for just under $4M total or $1.2M for a year to likely net him more than the $2.7M left on the table when his Toydarian Junk Dealer Darren Ferris would be able to threaten arbitration. They eventually settled on 1 year $1.375M. Less than a year later and after an arguably worse season for Andreas, he signed for 2 years and $6M total. Probably also because Jedi mind tricks don't work on Toydarians.
