Quoting: Mr_Gardoki
I mean, they're not moving him to jersey and no, they won't have to pay to move him. I'm not trying to bark at you, but this board has a really unrealistic/unclear vision of how all this works. Just because a player is having a bad season or an off-year they don't all of a sudden become these pieces of crap they have to pay teams to take. I'm telling you this as a fact, that's not how it works. Now, if Graves had like two bad years in a row on this contract? Ok, there'd be some validity to that, but a player who's only 28 coming off a strong year doens't just become crap overnight and GM's know this.
Yes, it will absolutely affect return, but they don't have to pay or retain. This board has become worse and worse with it's general takes and this is one.
My general thought process is this:
If a player leaves a team to sign a new team as a UFA (especially if it’s not a top tier contender), that means him at that contract is generally his net 0 value (with some exceptions).
Ryan graves based on his previous play, went, tested the market, and the market told him he was worth 4.5 million dollars a year with no other draft capital involved.
Since then, his play has dropped to a level below what it previously was. So his value drops below said 4.5 million AAV.
Unless you’re suggesting graves took a discount to play in Pittsburgh, which I disagree with.
In order for a team to want to pay for Graves (especially with all the available UFAs about to come) they would likely have had to:
Viewed graves as a player worth more than 4.5 million, and in that case they probably made him an offer above that which he declined to play in Pittsburgh.
Not be on graves M-NTC, I’d imagine a number of the teams above (if they exist) would be on said NTC if he took less money to not play for them
Not have had their perception dropped by Graves recent lowered level of play.
Generally signing UFAs from other teams is like a car, it loses 20% of its value the second you drive it off the lot