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Jyrki21
Rebel Sell + Moneyball = Life
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 1593
Location: Ottawa, ON
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 Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject: Adam Foote - selfish, whiny bitch? |
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The question mark is because Foote is denying it. Nevertheless:
| Aaron Portzline wrote: |
It's believed that Foote and his agent, Rick Curran, set their contract demands at a height they knew the Blue Jackets wouldn't accept.
Proof: The Blue Jackets moved up from their first offer of two years, $6 million to two years, $7 million, but Foote and Curran refused to budge from their initial demand of two years, $8 million.
When Howson suggested to Foote that the sides continue negotiating beyond the trade deadline -- that the Blue Jackets' playoff hopes, faint as they are, deserve a hearty attempt -- Foote responded in a way nobody could have predicted.
According to numerous NHL sources, Foote threatened to be "a bad teammate, a bad captain and a bad player" the rest of the season if he weren't re-signed or traded to his preferred destination -- the Colorado Avalanche, where his best NHL years were spent.
The Blue Jackets made a final plea, urging Foote to consider all that the Blue Jackets' ownership group, the coaching staff and the fans had done for him the past three seasons.
Again, according to sources, he responded by saying that he "doesn't owe anybody anything." |
| Greg Wyshinski wrote: |
| Foote has denied all of this alleged diva act, telling the paper that he told the team "it would be too stressful for my wife and I to stay without knowing for sure I was part of the future there." |
Yet...
| Aaron Portzline wrote: |
But think about it: Foote said he couldn't play the rest of this season without a contract extension, without knowing what his future held. But he hasn't signed an extension with the Avalanche.
The bet here is that he signs for far less than $3.5 million per season in Colorado. A further bet is that fans in Nationwide Arena won't forget how Foote orchestrated his departure. |
| Michael Arace wrote: |
Lesson No. 1: Foote said he put his Dublin house on the market last summer because he wanted to "downsize." What he didn't say was he was hunting for a smaller house in the greater Denver area.
Lesson No. 2: Foote professed shock that he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche -- yet he rigged the game for just this outcome.
Here's what we know:
Jackets management wanted to continue negotiating with Foote. It wanted him here for the final stretch of the season. It was willing to lose him without compensation this summer, if it came to that -- which is a testament to its soaring regard for the captain. But Foote wanted $4 million a year for two years, an exorbitant price -- and if he didn't get it, his demand was to be moved to Colorado. And make no mistake, it was a demand.
A private jet, possibly leased by Foote's agent, took off from Pittsburgh on Monday night -- some 16 hours before the trade deadline -- and parked itself at Port Columbus overnight. This is the jet that whisked Foote to Calgary in time for him to suit up for the Avalanche on Tuesday night. Foote prearranged to have a pile of tickets ready for his friends and family. |
edit:
Bob Mackenzie thinks someone is feeding bad information to the media, saying that Foote was simply obstinate in wanting $4 million per year over two years, and not a penny less.
| Bob Mackenzie wrote: |
The worst you can say about Foote is that once he realized he wasn't going to get his $4 million in Columbus that he played hardball to make sure he ended up in Colorado at the deadline because he may have feared, and rightfully so, that by July 1 the Avalanche may have gone in a different (Rob Blake) direction and he would have been shut out of the only other place besides Columbus that he was interested in going. |
I'm not sure I buy it -- if it was truly a principled stand only about "self-worth" as Mackenzie says, it doesn't explain why he'll surely re-sign in Colorado for less than that.
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saskhab
'03-'04 Goalie Profiles Coming Soon!
Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Posts: 2955
Location: Saskatoon!
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/mckenzie/?id=231163
| Quote: |
If I'm looking at this one objectively, it has all the earmarks of someone spinning the loss of the captain for the sake of $600,000 a year. I can't imagine it would be Columbus' general manager Scott Howson. For one thing, it's not his style. For another, no GM is going to pull that kind of stunt with his local media because it's hardly how an organization on the rise would go about attracting free agents to play in your town this summer.
While I have no issue per se with the Blue Jackets deciding to go in a different direction than a two-year extension for Foote, I can't imagine it's advisable to obliquely smear a stalwart NHL defender with a reputation for character and competitiveness on his way out of town.
So I can't imagine anyone in the Blue Jacket front office would do that, but someone somewhere is feeding the local Columbus media this stuff about Foote being a ''fraud'' or threatening to be a ''bad teammate'' or a ''bad captain.''
Foote is an interesting guy and if you don't know him and understand him, it could be difficult to make sense of all that went down in the days and hours leading up to the NHL trade deadline.
Above and beyond all else, Foote is very proud. He plays that way on the ice; he carries himself that way off the ice, too.
Foote has an ultra-defined sense of who he is, his self-worth and what he's all about and he's not really shy about it either. When teammates are not pulling their weight in his eyes, he let them knows and the message isn't subtle. He's an ornery cuss on the ice, a real hard guy to play against. And he can be a little rough around the edges off the ice, too, especially when he feels as though someone is challenging him.
...
Would he have stayed in Columbus if the Blue Jackets had met his price of $4 million a year on a two-year contract extension?
Absolutely, no question, in my mind.
I know this because up until the morning of the trade deadline, Foote's agent, Rick Curran, fully anticipated the Blue Jackets would come back with the $4 million a year extension and so did Foote. When the Jackets didn't ante up, Curran was shocked. Completely blindsided. He had assumed it wouldn't be a big issue and that his client would be re-signing in Columbus. Foote felt the same way.
Now, we can argue all day whether Foote is worth $4 million a year on a two-year deal. And the premise of the Columbus newspaper article was that Foote will have to settle for far less than that from Colorado or the open market if he should go there on July 1. I don't doubt he may be hard pressed to get $4 million or two years or both come July 1 but that is not evidence of anything other than how Foote's mind works. And it's not out of the question he gets one or both from some team.
This season in Columbus, Foote was making $4.6 million. He knew that in order to get an extension, he would have to take a haircut, that the Blue Jackets would expect him to take some sort of pay cut. And he was good with that.
But Foote looked around the league at what defencemen are signing for. He looked at the minutes he played for the Blue Jackets and the role he fulfilled on the team. And then he did what Adam Foote does best - he ascribed his own worth to the Blue Jackets at the sum of $4 million a year. And from that moment forward, he wasn't accepting a penny less.
It wasn't a financial issue. It was a worth issue. A pride issue. Foote has plenty of money. Plenty. But he has even more pride. |
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It's backwards time. |
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US679 Part Deux
An improvement over the US678 prototype
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 456
Location: Milton, Ontario
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject: Re: Adam Foote - selfish, whiny bitch? |
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| Jyrki21 wrote: |
| I'm not sure I buy it -- if it was truly a principled stand only about "self-worth" as Mackenzie says, it doesn't explain why he'll surely re-sign in Colorado for less than that. |
Maybe, but that hasn't happened yet.
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saskhab
'03-'04 Goalie Profiles Coming Soon!
Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Posts: 2955
Location: Saskatoon!
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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Ian just thinks everything involving Colorado is a conspiracy.
Foote at $4m, when he's been paid $4.6m for the past 3 years, isn't a ridiculous price at all. The thought of Foote being a bad teammate is even more so.
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It's backwards time. |
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US679 Part Deux
An improvement over the US678 prototype
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 456
Location: Milton, Ontario
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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| saskhab wrote: |
Ian just thinks everything involving Colorado is a conspiracy.
Foote at $4m, when he's been paid $4.6m for the past 3 years, isn't a ridiculous price at all. The thought of Foote being a bad teammate is even more so. |
Oh, I know, what he forgets, is we had them for many years as the Quebec Nordiques 
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Av-merican
Un-Tenured Professor of Hockey
Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Posts: 1673
Location: Denver
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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Quite the uh, detailed analysis there J21!
I still think Avs fans at times vastly overrate the contributions of guys like Foote, Forsberg, and especially Blake, but there is absolutely positively zero evidence at any time that Foote has ever been a bad teammate or a bad presence in the locker room. The worst rumor that ever came out involving him and dissention in the ranks concerned an ongoing rift between him and Chris Drury, but a lot of that was attributed to Drury acting like a snot-nosed punk and Foote putting him in his place. Again, that's just rumor though.
I'll admit I actually underrated Foote's value to our team. He's most definitely our next captain should he stick around and Sakic retire. We definitely need him back there given how thin and flimsy our blueline situation currently is...
Whatever, I'm very iffy on the Avs re-signing him. A 1st rounder is gone this year if the Avs make the postseason and we lose our 2nd if we re-sign him. Given we've already lost our 3rd in the Salei deal that means the Avs are essentially locked out of the first three rounds of one of the best drafts, reportedly, to come around in years. I don't like that at all considering our stable of prospects is a tad overrated and we don't have a true blue chipper (closest one to that would be Shattenkirk) on the blueline. But then again I guess I just made a solid case to re-sign Foote.
One thing the Avs might want to seriously think over though is trading Svatos this offseason (injured or not his value is still very high) to a team (any one except fucking Calgary) for a nice pick or picks. He's slowly turning into the Tuomo Ruutu of this team and his value is only going to go down from here on out... |
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E.L.3000
Big in Japan
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 1353
Location: Finger?
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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Bobby Mac's article is another in a long list of examples of how the TSN analysts are so well connected, they've lost all detached perspective.
...or at least that's what I read in an email from Gord Miller to Bill Daly.
| Quote: |
Would he have stayed in Columbus if the Blue Jackets had met his price of $4 million a year on a two-year contract extension?
Absolutely, no question, in my mind.
I know this because up until the morning of the trade deadline, Foote's agent, Rick Curran, fully anticipated the Blue Jackets would come back with the $4 million a year extension and so did Foote. When the Jackets didn't ante up, Curran was shocked. Completely blindsided. He had assumed it wouldn't be a big issue and that his client would be re-signing in Columbus. Foote felt the same way. |
Well if his agent says so, then clearly Foote would have had no problem going back to CLB. What a joke.
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The Love Guru is a comedy like the Leafs are a hockey team. - G&M's Rick Groen
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the New Cunning Linguist
Failed Bandwagon Opportunist
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 1444
Location: I'm here, aren't I?
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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I think Colorado is a far, far better team with Foote than without. How many first round picks can make an immediate impact, draw into the Top 2 pairing, and stabilize the defense in their first year? In a division which features Gaborik/Demitra, Iginla, and the Sedins (both of whom Foote owned in the last game), you need a rock-solid defensive defenseman and Foote gives them that. As long as they can re-sign him this summer, and I can't see them not giving him what he wants - trade Hejduk to us if you guys need the cap room - $4M isn't outrageous and Sakic is due for a pay cut anyway...
As for the controversy, meh... Even sportswriters need to eat.
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... Because the old one, is well, old.
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