Todd: Insane Flyers offer sheet proves Canadiens GM Kent Hughes’s wisdom
Rarely do we get such a snapshot of the human condition, the wise man and the fool juxtaposed in a single moment, wisdom and folly side by side for all to see.
On July 1, Canadiens GM Kent Hughes signed dazzling Russian forward Ivan Demidov to an eight-year, $73.2-million contract with an average annual value of $9.15 million.
Two days later, Philadelphia Flyers GM Daniel Brière announced that he had tendered an offer sheet to 21-year-old Anaheim Ducks Swedish centreman Leo Carlsson for five years at $90 million, an average annual value of $18 million that would also cost the Flyers their first-round draft pick each year for the next four years.
Absurd? Ridiculous? Insanity? Sheer madness?
All of the above.
Either the Ducks elect to keep their player and throw their own salary structure completely out of whack, or they part ways with Carlsson and hope the four draft picks turn into an acceptable return. Either way, it’s a bitter pill for the Ducks. And either way, it might be the single dumbest move in NHL history.
Had Ducks GM Pat Verbeek possessed some of the wisdom of Kent Hughes, he would have locked Carlsson up for eight years at a reasonable figure, long before the Flyers came poaching on his territory.
Had Carlsson’s agents, father-son duo Matt and Ryan Keator, possessed that wisdom, they would have counselled their client that the last thing he needed was a greed now, pay later contract that would leave the young centreman under enormous pressure in a success-starved market that eats its young. Let Carlsson go into a prolonged slump in Philadelphia and see what it’s like to be in the line of fire of Philly fanatics.
Had Carlsson himself possessed some of the wisdom and maturity of his fellow centreman Nick Suzuki, he would have realized that he stood to make tens of millions of dollars for playing shinny anyway, without deliberately painting a giant target on his own back. Instead, with a heavily front-loaded contract and signing bonuses, the team that ends up with him will have to pay out a ludicrous $39 million of a $90-million deal within the next 12 months.
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The best the Flyers can hope for now is that the Ducks elect to match. Otherwise, they’ll be stuck with a wildly irresponsible contract, a cap-buster for the next five seasons, after which Carlsson will again be a free agent.
Yes, the Flyers need the same thing the Canadiens needed for virtually the entire Marc Bergevin era — a true No. 1 centreman. But as the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs can tell you, no one player can guarantee you a Stanley Cup.
Meanwhile, not only did the best general manager in the National Hockey League not win the Jim Gregory Award that somehow went to the obnoxious Bill Guerin — he finished fifth in the voting behind the remarkable Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh. But I doubt that Kent Hughes spent a nanosecond worrying about the vote. Hughes is far too busy building a team and he’s going about it the right way.
Last week, Hughes announced the signings of Demidov and Jakub Dobes, two more key components to building a team. This after taking a 55-point train wreck in the spring of 2022 to a 106-point conference finalist in four short years.
Despite the occasional disaster (think Irving Grundman, or Pierre Gauthier) the Canadiens have been extraordinarily lucky in the single most important job in the business. In Frank J. Selke Jr. and Sam Pollock they have two legends of the sport and Hughes is well on his way to legendary status in a very different era.
Kent Hughes, after all, is a wise man in a kingdom too often run by fools.
Even wise men make mistakes… And Kirby Dach is one of them. The Canadiens have given Dach chance after chance after chance. The guy has endured a smorgasbord of injuries but when he is healthy, he’s fallen far short of the player Hughes thought he was getting when he traded for the former Chicago Blackhawk.
Hughes elected to keep Dach when he could have hung onto the hardworking, reliable Joe Veleno — but now Dach has thanked him by filing or arbitration. On this team-first squad, Dach sticks out like a very sore thumb. He needs to be elsewhere and we don’t much care where, as long as it’s outta town.
That FIFA stench: There are no words for the corrupt, cowardly deal FIFA president Gianni Infantino struck with Donald Trump to allow American striker Folarin Balogun to skip his red card and play against Belgium.
When you start letting tinpot dictators make the rules for the world’s most prominent sports federation, your credibility is hanging by a thread.
Heroes: Summer McIntosh, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Michael Olise, Cabo Verde, Jonathan David, Tajon Buchanan, Richie Laryea, Stephen Eustáquio, Ismaël Koné, Promise David, Jesse Marsch, &&&& last but not least, Kent Hughes.
Zeros: Gianni Infantino, FIFA, Cristiano Ronaldo, the USMNT, Daniel Brière, the Philadelphia Flyers, Leo Carlsson, Mike Babcock, Stan Bowman, Kirby Dach, &&&& last but not least, Donald J. Trump.
Now and forever.
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