Canucks GM, agent flying to Sweden to meet with Daniel and Henrik Sedin
By IAIN MacINTYRE, Vancouver Sun columnist
June 29, 2009 8:31 PM
J.P. Barry Barry told The Vancouver Sun on Sunday he was travelling to Sweden to meet personally with his Daniel and Henrik Sedin. ESPN is reporting that Vancouver Canuck general manager Mike Gillis is on the same flight.
It was like the ending of Sleepless in Seattle — if Sam and Annie were lawyers in suits and worked opposite sides of labour relations in the National Hockey League.
Just when any hope of a lasting, meaningful relationship seemed lost, Vancouver Canuck general manager Mike Gillis and player agent J.P. Barry, not knowing if the other would be there, met late Sunday by chance in the business-class cabin of a flight from Montreal to Europe. Cue the music and pass the Kleenex.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t quite like the movie. There was no rendezvous atop the Empire State Building. But it was as touchy-feely as things have been between Gillis and Barry, who have disagreed for a year over what Daniel and Henrik Sedin should be paid but at least have in common the respect for the twins to visit them in Sweden before free agency opens July 1.
Their coincidental travel plans — a brief weekend meeting at the draft in Montreal went nowhere and neither told the other he was going to Sweden — led to an impromptu Sedin summit Monday in Stockholm.
Daniel and Henrik, resigned to the grim possibility they may have to leave the Canucks, travelled to Stockholm from their hometown of Ornskoldsvik to meet Barry. Imagine their surprise when Gillis and assistant general manager Laurence Gilman stepped off the plane with him.
The sides agreed to a cone of silence, but they spent Monday trying to solve the impasse that, remarkably if viewed in a snapshot, has two of the best, most loyal and decent Canucks on the verge of fielding offers from other NHL teams on Wednesday.
Also present at the summit was Claes Elefalk, who runs Barry’s field office in Sweden.
Gillis’ decision to fly across the Atlantic on the eve of free agency is easily the most encouraging thing that has happened since negotiations began last summer. And the inclusion of Gilman on the road trip is significant, too.
This wasn’t just Gillis travelling over to make peace. It was the Canucks going to make a deal — and we’ll know today or early Wednesday if they were successful.
Barry’s reaction may well have been: ‘What took you so long?’ But it must have been heartening for the Sedins to see their boss on their home turf because, in truth, they’ve had lingering doubts about Gillis’ intentions since he replaced Dave Nonis as the Canucks’ general manager 14 months ago.
Famously, Gillis questioned at his first Canuck press conference if the Sedins were players to build around. He spent much time explaining and re-framing those remarks, yet wasn’t concerned enough about what the Sedins thought to pick up the phone and call them during his first four months on the job.
The twins finally met the new GM only before training camp in September, where management said it wanted to keep the Sedins and the players restated their desire to stay in Vancouver. Negotiations began and went nowhere.
Although there has been recurring contact, the Canucks had not materially altered their best offer — believed to be five-year deals for slightly more than $5.5 million US per season — since February.
The team did not even counter the 12-year, $64-million offer this month from Barry that Gillis flatly rejected.
So you can see how the Sedins might have been wondering if the team really wanted them. Monday’s summit answered that; Gillis cared enough to come to them, to jump the Atlantic in the hopes that he could explain to them face-to-face the Canucks’ position and convince them to stay.
And silly as it seems given the money at stake, that might be enough for the Sedins.
They don’t want to leave the Canucks. Barry doesn’t want to be the agent who couldn’t keep his clients where they were happy. Gillis doesn’t want to be the GM who forced away his best two skaters over ideology about the salary cap and where the NHL economy is going.
The Sedins simply needed an honourable way back from the ledge, an offer they could accept without feeling like they capitulated and lowered the pay scale for 700 NHL players.
The 28-year-olds knew they were never going to get full market value, which by any conventional statistical measure would be about $7 million per season. They never expected to. Times are tough. They’re a tandem, which complicates things. They’re not greedy.
But in the prime of their careers, coming off four excellent seasons in which they were underpaid, and seeing comparable scorers rewarded with annual salaries of $6-8 million, the Sedins deserved something better to sign than $5.5 million a season.
They’ve got Gillis’ respect. All they needed Monday was a little better offer.
When Nonis was fired, he had planned to travel with Barry to Sweden to re-sign the Sedins. Now Gillis can do the same, which would be a happy ending no one envisioned until Monday.
imacintyre@vancouversun.com
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