Wednesday, July 04, 2007

The League Gets Involved

From The Hockey News via Kukla's:

"NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Hockey News.com the league is awaiting further details before deciding whether to step in.

"'Clubs and players both should have a right to rely on the sanctity of contractual commitments, regardless of how those commitments are memorialized,' Daly said in an emailed statement. 'To our knowledge, there has been only one Standard Player's Contract executed and filed with the League, and under our CBA, that contract should be enforceable.

"'But if, after reviewing all of the relevant facts here, there has been a breach of a contractual commitment, we will certainly assist the Oilers in any way we can in seeking an appropriate remedy. We are not in a position to opine what those remedies might be at this point.'"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is all getting rather dramatic:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Og7-6YubuS4&mode=related&search=

Anonymous said...

Curse you, snktimoniuz, for eliciting those 70's childhood memories of afterschool daycare at Mrs. Poulin's.

Anonymous said...

I dunno. Seems kinda clear to me. Until something's in writing, it's not official. And why did Edmonton wait until hearing from the media before checking in? You would think that if they hadn't received the signed contract back first thing in the morning at the latest, they would have been on the phone asking what was going on.

Anonymous said...

That's the exact question many Oilers fans are asking themselves, TG. It's not as if the GM and player agent involved are rookies.

Anonymous said...

tg - That's been a sticking point for me too. The report on the Edmonton radio station came out at 1am ET Monday, which one can assume is when this supposed deal was reached. Lowe went off and worked on his little trade thinking Nylander was locked up, but Nylander signed with the Caps at 4pm...

That's 15 hours between this "agreement" and the signing... a long, long time. Does Lowe honestly expect us to believe that he spent that whole time twiddling his thumbs? I'd have been on the phone by 9am with Nylander or his agent asking what was up.

I have a feeling that Lowe wasn't quite as caught off-guard by this as he claims, and that he's been playing up the "oh, woe is me" factor to save face instead of looking for other centers. He's got the cap space to make a run at some RFAs, yet he's just sitting around pouting.

I'm not saying Nylander's agent didn't screw him, or that Nylander didn't leave him waiting at the altar, because it's entirely possible that he did, but Lowe is playing this for all it's worth because he's in big trouble with the fans.