Throwback Thursday: That Time The Flyers Offer Sheeted Shea Weber For 14 Years, $110 Million
Alright so the next few days are probably going to suck while we do nothing but wait for the free agency period to open up on Sunday. There’s a chance we could see John Tavares re-sign back with the Islanders before then but for the most part, it’s probably going to be a boring 72-ish hours before we start to see some action on July 1. So while we wait, let’s take a quick trip back in time and head to July 2012 when Shea Weber agreed to an offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers worth $110 million over 14 years, shall we?
Rarely do we ever see restricted free agents sign offer sheets in the NHL. And even if they do end up signing the offer sheet, the team who owns the right to that player almost always ends up matching the offer. The only player in the last 20 years who has signed an offer sheet and his team didn’t match the offer was Dustin Penner back in 2007 when he signed with the Edmonton Oilers for 5 years for $21.5 million. If you don’t know already, the reason why most teams don’t send out offer sheets is because in order to sign a restricted free agent, you have to not only pay the player but also give up draft picks for compensation to the team who owns said player’s rights. So heading back to Anaheim in 2007 for Dustin Penner was a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick all in 2008. So yeah. We almost never see GMs offer sheet any RFA’s but in 2012, the Philadelphia Flyers were either extremely desperate to land Shea Weber to put them over to top to be a top Stanley Cup contender, or they just really wanted to fuck over the Nashville Predators. Because on July 19, 2012, Paul Holmgren sent an offer sheet to 27-year-old Shea Weber for 14-years at ~$7.85M AAV.
Again, maybe there is a chance that some of you reading this don’t quite understand how all of this works so here’s what happens next. Getting a restricted free agent to sign with your team doesn’t work the same way as an unrestricted free agent. It’s not like once Shea Weber jots his Herbie Hancock on the dotted line, that he’s now a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. The original team who owns the right to the player then has a week to match the offer and if they do, then that player stays with the original team. If the Nashville Predators had let Shea Weber walk, then they would have received four 1st round picks from the Flyers. But on July 24, 2012, the Predators ended up matching the offer sheet and signed Shea Weber to that contract themselves. It looked as if Shea Weber was going to remain in Nashville until he was 41 years old…
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…that is, of course, until June 29, 2016 when the Predators swapped Shea Weber to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for PK Subban. And here’s the thing. The Flyers were definitely winners of that whole offer sheet ordeal. The Nashville Predators ended up being winners of that offer sheet ordeal as well. The real loser here in the whole scenario? The Montreal Canadiens. Because here is how the Philadelphia Flyers destroyed that organization.
If the Flyers don’t send that ridiculous offer sheet to Shea Weber, the Predators probably end up signing him to a little less lucrative contract. If Shea Weber isn’t signed until 2026 at over $7.5 million AAV, then there’s a good chance that they’re not so quick to just trade their captain away 1-for-1 for PK Subban. And if they’re not up for a player-for-player trade with Montreal, then maybe that Canadiens don’t go through with that one. But because Paul Holmgren forced the Predators to give Weber that contract, Nashville decided they could take on a younger PK Subban for just a little more money with a contract that expires 4 years earlier than Weber’s would.
And how does that make the Montreal Canadiens the real losers here? Well because the Habs didn’t make the playoffs in 2015-16. And for some reason, they thought that PK Subban was the main reason behind that due to “character issues”. So the Canadiens trade Subban to the Predators and Nashville ends up making it to the Stanley Cup Final that next year. Meanwhile, Montreal loses in the 1st round to the Rangers. So if Subban wasn’t the main anchor holding the Canadiens down, who was? Well the next scapegoat up in Montreal was Michel Therrien. So they decided to fire him in the middle of the 2016-17 while the team was in 1st place in the Atlantic Division. Still didn’t work. Next they gave up on Mikhail Sergachev, granted they were able to pick up Jonathan Drouin in the process. Then they got rid of Nathan Beaulieu. Then they got rid of Alex Galchenyuk. Now they’re in the process of traded Max Pacioretty.
The PK Subban trade sparked some sort of self-destruct mode in Marc Bergevin’s brain to tear that team down piece by piece trying to figure out who was holding the team back from greatness. They’re so confused right now that they ended up taking 6 different centers in the draft last week. And all of this is happening because the Philadelphia Flyers sent a ridiculous offer sheet to Shea Weber which the Nashville Predators matched, thus making it an easier decision to send him to Montreal. What a world.