Kypreos nicely explains how tricky Jason Robertson’s contract situation really is
Sportsnet 590 The FAN: Nick Kypreos lays out the Jason Robertson situation and how signing a one-year arbitration may make the most sense for him if he wants protection from being traded. It’s a really tricky situation.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kypreos: “It looks like Jason Robertson’s best case scenario may be just to sign an arbitration contract at one year.”
Sam McKee: “No.”
Justin Bourne: “That’s mental.”
McKee: “Risky.”
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Bourne: “Like Dallas, Dallas probably offering him eight by $12 (million), right?”
Kyreos: “Yes.”
Bourne: “Seven by 12 now?”
Kypreos: “No, no. Eight by 12. You’re right, and that was, I guess, two months ago.”
Bourne: “Right.”
Kypreos: “And Seattle offered him maybe $130 (million). I think. I think it was 15.5, yeah. 15.6.”
Bourne: “That Klingberg deal …”
McKee: “I was just about to say he should …”
Bourne: “… sticks out to me.”
McKee: “He was honestly like he should call John Klingberg and talk to John Klingberg.”
Bourne: “Yeah. Who’s a free agent by the way.”
Kypreos: “So here’s, here’s where it’s kind of unique, because this doesn’t really happen. Because very seldom do we see players in Jason Robertson’s position, where you’re kind of a free agent, but you’re not a free agent. You got this one-year window where you’re a restricted free agent.”
And that one year is really screwing things up, because if Dallas moves off of their 12 million from a few months ago, and goes to 13. You can sit there and go, okay, that that 13 is really like 15 somewhere else.”
Bourne: “Yeah.”
Kypreos: “Right. And that’s okay. But if I sign it and it’s an eight year deal prior to last night, it’s great, but what I can’t sign on that eight year deal at $13 million is next season’s trade protection. So I can agree to Dallas’s 13 times eight, and then Jim Neil the next day could trade me to Seattle and my contract goes to 13 Seattle when I turned down 15.5 and I’m leaving $30 million on the table and I looked like a donkey.”
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Bourne: “He can’t get trade protection at his age as an RFA.”
Kypreos: “Can’t get trade protection.”
Bourne: “Not there yet.”
Kypreos: “Right.”
McKee: “That’s …”
Bourne: “So right now. How does he have protection?”
Kypreos: “Yeah, he doesn’t have protection, he has zero protection.”
Bourne: “Oh, he’s just saying he won’t sign an extension.”
Kypreos: “Won’t sign extension. So you can now trade my rights to anywhere you want, and they can sign me to a seven-year deal and still have the ability to trade me if they’re not happy by Christmas or January, February, and now it’s just like, Who do you trust?”
McKee: “That’s a dangerous game, brother.”
Kypreos: “So you’re in, you’re within 12 months of controlling your destiny with cash and a no-move clause, but if you, if you, if you get traded, or you sign in Dallas, you, you don’t have total control of your destiny for the next seven years.”
Bourne: “I’ll tell you, how you get a no-trade clause, you can sign an offer sheet, one-year, they can’t trade you if they match the offer sheet. So, if he got an offer from somewhere else right now as an RFA, you could sign it, Dallas could match, he couldn’t be traded for a year.”
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Kypreos: “No, they won’t match.”
Bourne: “They won’t match? They’ll take, they’ll take four first.”
Kypreos: “They’ll take four first. But who’s doing that? And who has the four picks? It gets a little tricky, and really, you’re probably in a position to say, ‘Well, like, if they’re first rounders, man, just sign them next summer.’ So it’s tricky now.”
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