Quoting: Jangle29
Toronto owns his rights and will not pay that much, thus he will not make that much
*going to exaggerate for arguments sake*
With that logic why don't you just offer him $1mil, Leafs own his rights, right? The player has no power whatsoever.....
*exaggeration over*
doesn't work that way, the player will still be without a contract. if the entire league would pay someone like Kapanen $4-5mil aav on a bridge deal, and the leafs say "screw that, we're only giving him $3mil aav" it does 2 things:
1. It hurts the relationship with the player (see Nylander as perfect example), and increases the odds of an eventual separation of both parties.
2. It makes negotiations worse / more difficult for future players. Consistently low balling is bad for business (hypothetical situation: Sandin becomes a top 4 D before the end of his ELC, if the team has a past history of consistently low balling players, Sandin and his agent will try and start with higher demands in hopes to even out negotiations, thus making the whole process a lot longer, and looping back to problem #1.
Leafs are right to be doing it to Nylander imo. but if they keep doing it to every good player coming off an ELC in the organization, it's gonna hurt them in the long run 100%.