The Art of The Deal

It’s been said that the best kind of deals leave both sides unhappy in the end and I guess this can be applied to the Ryan Kesler signing. The Canucks most definitely wanted him to sign for less (what team wouldn’t), somewhere in the $4 million range. Ryan Kesler (and his agent) probably wanted to hit the proverbial home run and get a contract approaching $6 million per season. The fans, of course side with the former, not out of any disrespect to Kesler, but merely remembering Kesler hinting at some kind of home town discount (a la Burrows) and dreaming of using any saved money to get one of those shiny, new unrestricted free agents on July 1st.

So we didn’t get what we wanted, but we did get what we needed. The signing had to get done. Anyone who watches the Canucks sees that Kesler may be the most irreplaceable player on the roster. He’s already gone to restricted free agency once, and had a team other than the Canucks sign him. After the Olympics, what American team wouldn’t have wanted to sign him? If that were to happen again, the Canucks would surely match the offer again, but what might the cost be at that point. Surely more than $5 million a year. So Canuck fans, we got got a discount, just as much of one as we hoped for.