The Edmonton Oilers believed they had a deal negotiated with Michael Nylander and were preparing to announce it earlier this week when Nylander signed with the Washington Capitals.
The Oilers could pursue legal action over this. As per a statement from their website (Hat tip to Kukla's Korner):
"The Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club is compelled to clarify the unfortunate
and unprecedented circumstances surrounding the Edmonton Oilers and
Michael Nylander.
On Sunday, July 1, 2007, Kevin Lowe, Oilers General Manager, and
Mr. Mike Gillis, Certified Agent for Michael Nylander, negotiated and
agreed to a multi-year NHL Standard Players Contract, starting in
2007/08. Mr. Gillis confirmed same to the Oilers in writing.
The Oilers then proceeded with preparations to announce Mr.
Nylander’s contract agreement on July 2, and concurrently continued
with the process of negotiating with other free agents based upon Mr.
Nylander being an important roster ingredient for the future.
However, while the Oilers were expecting the returned, signed
agreements from Mr. Nylander and Mr. Gillis, the Oilers discovered
through public announcements made mid-afternoon on July 2, that Mr.
Nylander had subsequently entered into a long-term contract with the
Capitals.
The Oilers can find no precedent for such conduct in our history.
The Oilers are examining and pursuing every course of action available
in the best interest of the team and our fans.
For legal reasons, the Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club will not be discussing the details any further at this time."
This is gonna get nasty. Ultimately, however, I don't know if it would be worthwhile for the league to overturn the signing and award Nylander's rights to Edmonton, as now the Oilers will have a player on their hands who doesn't want to be there.
I do expect that the Oilers could seek some form of compensation, be it a roster player from the Capitals lineup, a prospect, a draft pick, or perhaps a combinaton of the three.
My comments re-posted (and slightly edited) from a neighboring thread:
I'm on record on this website of saying that when I first read of Nylander being signed by the Oilers I didn't think he was a good fit. I stand by that belief and am surprised to learn there WAS a deal in place and it wasn't just speculation and rumour.
Not knowing all the details of the situation, just on the surface I don't think the Oilers have much of a case. They have a signed fax from an agent -- essentially a handshake -- but until they've got the signed documents back, they don't have a final deal. There is some contract law on the binding nature of these pre-agreement agreements, but without seeing the paper it's hard to say. That said, there is an ethical issue of Nylander or his agent informing the Oilers the deal is off or that they are still negotiating.
As a side note, you'll recall that Nylander had an agent who'd worked out a deal with the NY Rangers about a month ago, and then Nylander fired the fellow and told the Rangers the deal was off. Looks like the same sort of thing may have happened here too (without the new agent being fired in the process).
Sigh... Say what you want about being an Oilers fan, it ain't dull!
Maybe I'm wrong here, but to me until the official papers are signed and filed with the league all deals are only as good as handshakes. I'm not saying that it's right but if they didn't have his name on the dotted line then they never had him. Crying about it is one thing and wanting compensation is another. Buisness is buisness and sometimes it's tough. Just my opinion.
oilers are cry baby's lol. I hate that they aren't going to be competative, it makes the battle of Alberta a little more interesting when both teams can actually put a decent team out there
Get rid of Lowe. Get rid of Lowe. GET RID OF LOWE. When you look at the deals he's made over the past years you can see he's buddy-buddy with a few GMs and incapabe of negotiating with others. Makes me wonder about how he goes about negotiating contracts with UFAS. Yeah I know Edmonton isn't a great place to live.
I lived there for four years and had family there till I was 18. It the biggest hick town in Canada and a lot of players don't want to live and have their families living in that atmosphere, but Lowe has to do better than this.
I'm so glad that they didn't manage to get Nylander. Doesn't put up 30 goals a year and has had Jagr's help to get most of his points in New York. Lowe is crying Nylander is his scapegoat in hopes that the blame of this horribly handled offseason isn't all thrown at him.
A letter of intent isn't the same thing as a signed contract. The Oilers have no chance in this. I doubt Nylanders agent is that dumb. Well he did go to the capitals right? so maybe than again!
Sorry for taking so long to get back to this -- movie night with the family and I finally got everyone off to bed (including mama).
I don't think this is going to result in compensation from either Washington or the League -- both entities are likely innocent parties and shouldn't be punished.
Depending on what the Oilers have in that fax, my guess is they will be seeking financial compensation from Nylander and/or his agent Gillis. It will be interesting to see what number gets tossed around for damages.
Someone at another forum was questioning why the Oilers took so long to cry foul. I surmise they were waiting for the Washington deal to be submitted to NHL Central Registry so they'd have that as part of the evidence chain. (To escape punishment Gillis could claim HE made a deal with the Oilers, but his client went behind his back. The signed contract may show otherwise.)
But as I wrote above, given the stunt Nylander pulled a month ago with the Rangers and his previous agent, it appears to be buyer beware with this fellow. I hope Mr. Gillis doesn't find that his cheque bounces when he collects his commission from the Capitals deal.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on July 3rd at 11:39 PM.
The press release makes it sound like it was more than just a letter of intent, which is always conditional on signing the formal agreement. If that's true (ie. Nylander's agent agreed on the basic terms and there were no conditions), then under strict contract law principles the Oilers would have a strong claim that a binding agreement was in place. An agent can bind his or her principal -- that's why agents exist and you are comfortable talking with them, just like when you're buying a house from someone and you or your agent only ever talk with their agent. However, if that's not true, then the other posts are right -- no signed contract, no enforceable agreement.
Either way, Nylander obviously doesn't want to play in Edmonton that much, and I don't see the league putting up with a catfight between the Oilers and the Capitals for very long. So the best the Oilers can likely do is a draft pick or two. It would be tough to force a live, signed player who presumably also wants to play for the Capitals to uproot his family and move to Edmonton just because Lowe and Gillis got their wires crossed.
I concur with the comments about Lowe. I don't care how difficult the situation is, he's done a pretty rough job so far in my view. This might be his last chance at steering the helm, as popular as he once was. I do think he's chummy with certain GMs and tends to work with them instead of the big picture. Just my two cents of course. As for this situation, give me a break. Instead of poring over legalese and trying to come up with this ridiculous claim, maybe Kev should head back to the drawing board and try to get something, ANYthing, to make this look like not a total washout. Fans aren't going to be lining the streets supporting you and crying foul just because you didn't sign Nylander. He decided he'd rather take his chances playing with Ovechkin. I don't think anyone blames him. Stop paying the fifteen lawyers it took to concoct this frivolous waste of space and sink that money into a serious offer to a player who will make your team better. It's really not that complicated, is it?
The Oilers are crybabies?! I'll keep that one in mind the next time the Flames are #### over and want to seek recourse. (Not that it will ever happen, of course, because the Flames are perfect after all.)
Are you suggesting that Oilers management is just supposed to take this lying down, saying "Thank you sir, may I have another?" If the shoe was on the other foot, God forbid, how would you want Darryl Sutter to react? (Knowing Darryl from a lot of years back, I'm pretty certain he'd be en route to Nylander's house as we speak to give him a Victoriaville enema!)
There's a useful German word of which you may be aware: "Schadenfreude", which can be translated as "Taking happiness in the misfortune of others". Wins and losses on the ice are one thing, but how does anybody take enjoyment in something like this or the Pronger mess?
You may hate your ex-girlfriend for dumping you, but it should stop short of wishing her cancer. Similarly, I cheer against the Flames 82 games of the year, but it didn't bring me any glee when they missed the playoffs for seven years straight and had a revolving door of players in that span.
As someone who isn't passionate about the Oilers one way or another, here's my two cents...
*Nylander has a binding, NHL-approved contract with the Caps. So he isn't going anywhere else, regardless of what happens with Lowe's complaint.
*Since the NHL approved the contract, the Caps should be completely off-the-hook in terms of compensation, unless they offer to work something out on Nylander's behalf.
*The best the Oilers can hope for out of this is some sort of compensatory pick from the NHL, perhaps in conjunction with financial compensation from the Nylander camp. Neither of those, unfortunately, will help the Oilers in 2007-2008.
And finally...while I don't think the Oilers are 'crybabies', it is telling that the organization went to the trouble to make their complaint as public as possible, even though that can't discuss it further. To a long-distance observer, that looks bad. After getting blown out of the water on the first day of free agency, and then getting largely pilloried for the Pitkanen deal, it comes across as Kevin Lowe trying to say "Look! I really DID do something! But Nylander #### us! It's HIS fault, not mine!"
what i think happened is that Nylander gave his agent the terms he wanted, the Oilers gave him the right terms, and when the agent said 'we have a deal' and went to Nyles with the contract to sign, and he decided he didnt want to go there and decided to take the Caps offer instead, citing to the Washington press the familiarity with the city and the management. i dont think there was shady dealing by the agent at all, just that Nyles settled on Washington after everything was said and done. reading from his conference call yesterday, it was a difficult process for him. it wasnt right for his agent to sign a letter of agreement before consulting with the player, but there wasnt a contract signed (from what we can tell), so the Oilers are entitled to nothing, i'd say.
what i think happened is that Nylander gave his agent the terms he wanted, the Oilers gave him the right terms, and when the agent said 'we have a deal' and went to Nyles with the contract to sign, and he decided he didnt want to go there and decided to take the Caps offer instead, citing to the Washington press the familiarity with the city and the management. i dont think there was shady dealing by the agent at all, just that Nyles settled on Washington after everything was said and done. reading from his conference call yesterday, it was a difficult process for him. it wasnt right for his agent to sign a letter of agreement before consulting with the player, but there wasnt a contract signed (from what we can tell), so the Oilers are entitled to nothing, i'd say.
It's pretty simple. The Caps did nothing wrong they won't be penalized. Nylander clearly acted shady and undercut his agent. But the Oilers never had a signed contract submitted and approved by the league which the Caps have. Do the Oilers really want to go after Nylander finacially? What will that say to other free agents?
what it will say is be responsible and don't agree to sign with one team then sign a contract with another the next day. nylander was completely irresponsible and deserves to be penalized for this.
Many good points here. Nylander is not what the Oilers needs. They should not waste their resources on a run of the mill offensive centre who may average 50 points a season playing without Jagr and they are stuck with him for 4 years. The Rangers could not win with him.
What is troubling is that Lowe is completely shut out for UFA's did some questionable drafting, traded his captain away for a guy with suspect character and lost Captain Canada the face of the franchise for a measely 100,000 grand. Somehow I believe he misjudge this market. Though it may not be a bad thing that the Oilers can play like the Pens did for a couple of years with their core and draft a couple of high end kids to rebuild the franchise the only way they can
Whilst this is hard news to take in oil country i dont really understand why kevin lowe is throwing himself out there to be spurned like this. whats wrong with taking some time to rebuild through the draft and save himself some humiliation. if the big guys dont wanna be there why bother humiliating himself and the city further by promising things he has no control over. edmonton is not that bad of a city having lived there most of my life. the players that do play here are happy to be here with exception to a few primadonnas. i am a true oilers fan and am happy to see the plethora of young talent that is starting to take shape through draft years and a few forced trades. oilers fans should relax and wait for these flowers to bloom.
now it doesn't matter if he was a good fit or notall that matters is his agent send a letter of confirmation that it was a done deal.
that is all that lowe needs too prove his case.when all dust has settle i don't think washinton will get away with draft picks but might also loose a good player on their roster.......nylander will get sued along with his agent
K Lowe must follow through with this.
Agents act on behalf of players they make the deals.In this case the agent confirmed the deal.The fact that it did not happen is a breach of ethics.
Either the player or the agent was not acting in good faith.It is not OK!
Well first of all the Oilers are not "cry babies" McCallum. Where were your flames 2 years ago ? Notice I never put flames in caps. Thats how insignificant they are in the league. Under the regime of Sutter and now Keane who knows they might just break the 70pt barrier this year.
Lowe is doing whats best for the team. We have alot of young talent that should be playing but hasn't had the opportunity because of older less exciting players ie, Ryan Smith, Jason Smith, and that waste o####ood uniform Lupel. We have the likes of Schremp, Cogliano, etc ready for the league and well added to what we have left like Moreau, Torres, Hemsky, Pisani, should I continue...
The Oilers are a stronger team now for what Lowe has done... so the only blame for the Oilers not signing any big names this off season falls on the UFA's themselves. If they were so concerned with winning rather then their pockets who knows we might have gotten a player or two. The likes of both Gomez and Drury going to the Rangers is off the wall... its like wathcing the Yankees all over again.. all the talent in the world and no desire to win..
Isnt this the same team / management group that had a deal with the Ducks for Comrie a few seasons ago and #### them over and sent him to Philly at the last min. Not so funny when it happens to them. Serves them right.
The Comrie deal was a little more complicated than that and isn't really comparable to this Nylander business. For a more detailed version of the Comrie affair, visit my blog by clicking the link here and view the comments to the posting "Welcome and the Worst Nightmare..."
Here's a thumbnail: Comrie was an unsigned restricted free agent who held out and demanded a trade. So the Oilers were stuck in a situation of trading Comrie's RIGHTS, and the team that got him would still have to sign him to a contract. That greatly lowered his trade value.
After months of trying to get Comrie signed so it would improve their trade position, the Oilers worked out a trade with Anaheim which was Mike's preferred destination. (The Oilers did not want to trade him within the Conference, particularly to a team they were fighting with for the final playoff spot.) Once the deal was set, the Oilers requested that Comrie return the million dollar signing bonus to his original deal as consideration for the accommodation they'd provided. Comrie refused and the Anaheim deal fell through. Weeks later Comrie was traded to Philadelphia.
It was a bad business and, as I detail at my blog, no one came out of it looking well.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on July 4th at 6:13 PM.
"My Flames...?" Did you read my postings? Did you bother to look at the photograph next to my messages before making your post? Does that look like a Flames sweater to you? Please read my reply to OntarioFlamesFan again, and this time have VERY HEAVY SARCASM dripping from your mental voice when you reach that first set of brackets.
Terry Jones from the Edmonton Sun interviewed Kevin Lowe yesterday and wrote a very interesting article concerning the Nylander business. Here's a taste:
Lowe decided he didn't have to zip his lip about Nylander signing a four-year deal for $19.5 million with the Washington Capitals after believing he had a done deal (for a reported $2.5 million more) with agent Mike Gillis.
"Facts are facts and the truth is the truth," he said of deciding to speak. Lowe said it was early afternoon July 1 when agent Gillis told him 'I think he'll take the deal. He wants to come but his wife is uncertain.' "
Lowe said he held off the press conference to announce the trade with Philadelphia for Joni Pitkanen "hoping the deal would be done and be part of the press conference."
The press conference was finally held, with no Nylander announcement, in early evening. A couple hours later, Gillis sent an e-mail "confirming acceptance of the contract on Michael Nelander's behalf" and Lowe went home believing it was a done deal.
Expecting the signed contract to be on the fax machine at 6 a.m. when he returned to the office, Lowe said it wasn't there. So the Oilers began to call but Gillis didn't return the calls. So they called the player.
"His wife answered and said Michael was out running errands and would be back in a couple of hours.
"We're in a war room working on all sorts of other deals, not really concerned, just waiting for the paperwork," said Lowe.
*** continued below ***
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on July 5th at 11:47 AM.
Then, he pointed out, this columnist called to inquire about the Washington Capitals announcement they'd just signed Nylander.
Lowe finally reached Nylander.
"In a sombre voice, he told me 'I just couldn't do it.' It was like his wife freaked out like she was being shipped to Siberia or something."
Lowe said he called Caps GM George McPhee.
"He told me he got a call from the player and cited the Mike Vernon judgment that a player is not signed until he's signed.
"Finally I managed to get through to Nylander's agent. He was repentive and seemed to have some genuine feeling that he was disappointed in what happened. I talked about common sense and human ethics and not giving us a heads-up all day that this was happening and how we had gone 24 hours believing we had that need filled.
"What was he thinking not phoning all day?"
It's pretty clear what Gillis was thinking by not phoning all day, Kevin. He had one deal in his pocket with you for his client, and was then going out to get a better offer. If he'd called to let you in on the effort, you might have taken the deal off the table and he could have been left with nothing.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on July 5th at 11:47 AM.
Very interesting. It reminded me of like any relationship from the high school years. Guy likes girl, girl seems to like guy, guy calls girl, girl makes up some excuse, girl leaves with different guy because he drives a Ferrari. I haven't seen GM absurdity this fun since Esposito claimed his fax machine messed up Chris Gratton's offer sheet.
And it now appears that the real culprit was Chris Pronger's wife. Darn that wives' club!
With all the trouble we're having from wives, I think Edmonton is going to adopt a policy of only signing single guys! And who knew NHL hockey players were so hen-pecked? [*grin*]
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
