Calgary is offering Gaudreau an eight-year contract with an average salary of 10.5 million per season, sensational news that flew through the hockey corridors just a few hours before the opening of the transfer window. In a few tens of minutes, another one arrives: the left winger, who scored 40 goals and scored 115 Canadian points last season (only Connor McDavid collected more), rejects the Flames’ offer…
Likewise, the Devils, who reportedly came with more than nine million dollars per year, tried to lure the native from New Jersey. Gaudrea’s answer? Same as Calgary: Thanks, I don’t want to!
It was even more of a shock when the left winger agreed to $68 million over seven years from Columbus. From Columbus, which has long been considered a destination where top players don’t exactly flock. For example, goalkeeper Bobrovsky and forwards Panarin and M. Duchene did everything in the summer three years ago to escape from Ohio.
“I always get a rash when I hear negative comments about Columbus. It’s terribly unfair,” says Finnish general manager of the Blue Jackets Jarmo Kekäläinen now, and he is proud that with Gaudreau’s arrival, similar statements will probably end.
Some Flames fans thank Gaudreau for the services he has done for the club over nine years, but many supporters consider him a traitor and cannot come up with a name for him. In the live broadcast of the CBC Calgary News, the moderator Andrew Brown, for example, took a dig at him, who ended his entry rather unexpectedly.
“And that’s all from the news at the moment. I’ll sign up again at 11 a.m. unless the news station in Columbus offers me a lot less money, which I’d probably take,” Brown said.
At the same time, Columbus got into the game for Gaudreau only at the last moment. Much more frequently speculated destinations were New Jersey, Philadelphia or the NY Islanders. That is, teams located near the player’s birthplace.
“I’ve played in Columbus many times and it’s been great every time. There is a good young team here, and that also attracted me. Me and my wife thought we fit in really well here. It was a place I had circled on my bucket list for a while,” Gaudreau said.
“I always dreamed of playing closer to home. It didn’t matter where it was. I think our decision was that it would be best if we didn’t go back to Calgary. Then we decided what would be the best option for us, and Columbus was at the top of our list,” added the new teammate of Jakub Voráček, David Jiříček and perhaps even Stanislav Svozil.
“Usually we’re pretty cautious on the first day of free agency, but when this opportunity presented itself, we weren’t cautious at all. We immediately jumped on her,” said Kekäläinen.
Columbus missed the playoffs the last two seasons, Gaudreau would like to change that. “I didn’t come here to admire the beauty of the city. I came here to win,” he declares determinedly.
