This isn’t the start of a poorly imitated Seinfeld joke, but... What’s the deal with Anaheim Ducks forward Bobby Ryan? The last we saw of Ryan was during the NHL Awards when he and Ryan Getzlaf were yukking it up in a hilarious skit about their United States versus Canada duel. Since then? Lots of public negotiating on the part of Anaheim GM Bob Murray to, perhaps, get Ryan grounded into a better sense of reality.
Now there’s been a lot of silence on the part of both sides, and no one really seems to know what’s going on as Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register tells us.
The two sides, who appear to be at a legitimate stalemate, are playing it cool for now as Ryan’s lead Newport Sports Management agent, Don Meehan, said in an e-mail to the Register that there have been “no discussions” since Ducks GM Bob Murray revealed the winger turned down reported contract offers of five years and $25 million and four years and $18.6 million.
Murray said last week that there was “nothing new to report” with the situation, which is among the lingering issues that the Ducks are dealing with. He has had regular conversations with Teemu Selanne, which will continue into next week.
Given those two offers made to him for $5 million a year and $4.65 million a year, there’s got to be some brand of common ground to be had as the numbers aren’t outrageous and Anaheim certainly isn’t hard up against the cap, especially with defenseman Scott Niedermayer having retired. Orange County Register columnist Randy Youngman is curious as to what the hold up is as well and points the finger Ryan’s way while scaring Ducks fans into offer sheet madness.
Ryan already has said he’s not worth more than linemates Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, both of whom earn an average of $5.3 million a year, so what’s the hold-up?
Is Ryan’s agent trying get another team to make a bigger offer to the restricted free agent, forcing the Ducks to match? My guess is Ryan believes he’ll be worth more than $5 million in the final years of the contract, so he would prefer to sign for, say, only three years.
It would be interesting, however, if the Kings presented Ryan with an offer sheet worth more than $25 million. That would intensify an already heated rivalry.