Shea Weber Signs Enormous Offer Sheet
Restricted free agent defenseman Shea Weber has reportedly signed an offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers. Indications are that the sheet is for $100M over 14 years ($7.15M cap hit).
UPDATE: Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet is reporting the deal is $110M over 14 years ($7.86M cap hit), with a $68M signing bonus to be paid out over the first six years. The deal includes $27M over the next calendar year and $56M between now and July 1, 2015.
The Preds have seven days to match the offer or Weber will join the Flyers. If Nashville lets Weber go, they would receive four first round picks from the Flyers as compensation for the offer sheet.
This has been a tough summer for a division that had perhaps the best collection of defensemen in the NHL for the last few years. Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom retired and they traded Brad Stuart to San Jose. And Nashville already lost Weber’s partner, Ryan Suter, for nothing this summer to unrestricted free agency.
And this offer may be just too rich for the preds to match. Its heavily front loaded, and while they have the cap space the preds owner may just not want to have make that kind of payroll.
If he can match, The Flyers did the Preds a huge favor in making it possible to lock Weber in for the rest of his career. If not…well…The Hawks win because another division member slips a little further down the slope.
Hawks move up a few notches within Division…
3-4 Western Conf. foes moves up a few notches…
Zero Sum gain for Hawks as of right now!— unless they win Division!!!!
Still Waiting Bowman!!!
Philly GM must be under fire…. L.A. Kings (Cup winners) = Philly West
Bonus: How do you think Pikka Renne feels about all of this? How great will he look without his top two defensemen in front of him?
Once and OS is signed, can a player be traded in the 7 day match window?
I think the answer to my question is no. Ohh well.
Ozzzie – it’s either Nashville or Philly for Weber, and a trade isn’t possible.
fwiw, if the Preds match, they cannot trade him for one full year. So they would be on the hook for at least the first $27M of the contract if they opted to hang on to him to (hopefully) get better value via trade.
How is this a zero gain proposition for the Blackhawks, wall?
The Central Division, which makes up the majority of the Hawks’ schedule, is getting worse by the day. Detroit will undoubtedly make some moves before the season starts (whenever that actually happens), but they’re looking at a rookie (Brendan Smith) or Ian White taking the place of Nicklas Lidstrom right now, and the other will be asked to make up for the loss of Brad Stuart. And Nashville is losing the heart and soul of their team with arguably the best blue line pair in the game going separate directions. By default, if the Hawks’ play as well as they did last year against weaker competition, they get better.
And I know I’ve challenged this idea before, but I’ll do it again. What 3-4 teams in the Western Conference that weren’t already top 5 teams made improvements that make them a top 5 team in the conference? Edmonton is better, but not top 5. Vancouver added Garrison, but we don’t know the ultimate result of a Luongo trade (or the impact of fully committing to Schneider). LA is the same. San Jose has done nothing. Colorado hasn’t really made any significant upgrades. Dallas might be a little better, but not top 5. And we don’t know where Shane Doan is going to end up yet, either.
If we assume LA moves up from the 8 seed to either winning their division or at least making the top 5 in the conference, that’s one team that has moved up from the 7 spot or lower.
I don’t see there being 3 non-division winning teams in the Western Conference being better than the Blackhawks (on paper, on July 19).
Hawks are on paper the best team in the Central IMO. Don’t think STL replicates last year at all and I am confident calling it a fluke.
LA will have a Cup hang over more than likely and which Carter and Richards show up now that they have won.
Minnesota got slightly better but I still don’t see them anywhere near as good as Vancouver and probably even with Colorado (who has more top end talent but not much on the blue line).
The biggest thing for the Hawks with the limited depth they have will be getting into the playoffs healthy. Having Leddy and Kruger OR Stalberg take a major step forward would be a big help as well. Those two things happen and a deep run is definitely possible. If they don’t then people will probably be fired.
Really not a lot of doom and gloom just nothing on paper or otherwise to indicate the Hawks as blatant favourites.
Tab,
I tend to think like you. I don’t know that the Hawks are not that far off from a dominant Western Conference Team. I think we all realize that a 2nd Line Center and Physical, Big D-Man would be upgrades, but the team itself is not all together bad. We are coming off a 100 point season. I really like what we have coming through the minors, possibly besides another 1-2 physical, big d men. What else can we do besides being locked into overpaying for some poorer players?
This does lead me to perhaps my biggest gripe of the offseason. I wish the Hawks would have signed Weber to the offer sheet. The payout is immense, but the cap hit for the top 1-2 defensemen in the league is not all that ludicrous. I for one actually do not think the length for Weber is crazy (compared to the current crazy contracts out there, contract length may be a point I would go with the owners on) with his current age and the tradition of solid d-men playing until they’re 40 a high level. Kudos to another NHL team actually signing a player to an offer sheet…
Yes, Detroit will make another move or two…
You did not include the Wild… in “who is better”
Oilers are better… own the Hawks, and are 1 year older, smarter.
Ducks are better, Dallas better.
Agree, Hawks could be better in Division due to Division weaker… but Point is that we have not really improved Our Team… and unless we get the “Favorable 1st round match-up” we will be out in 1st round again!!!! And we might gain a few more wins against Division rivals… we will lose a few more games outside the Division…
Therefore— Zero Sum Gains!!!!
But all of this is still subject to change pending trades/UFA’s, etc.
I can’t imagine the frustration of a Preds fan this year. They loaded up and then get turfed in the playoffs. They lose their no. 2 D-man and now quite possibly their number 1 D-man.
Meanwhile, Radulov drinks in a bar in Russia.
How is this not circumventing the cap? 68 million in signings bonuses in the first six years that’s well more than half and 26 million in the first 11 months with only a 7.86 mill cap hit a year sounds pretty obvious to me!!