Jacob Trouba’s agent told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that the Jets defenseman isn’t floating an asking price of eight-years, $56 million as reported by the Winnipeg Free Press’ Tim Campbell.
When it comes to Andrew Ladd (reportedly asking for a six-year, $41 million or more deal) and Dustin Byfuglien (eight year, $55M reported asking price), Friedman reports that their reps are going the “no comment” route.
Here are those two tweets from Friedman, who expanded on the issue:
One important thing Friedman mentions is that, naturally, players are going to ask for a big price off the bat. That’s an essential part of the negotiation process.
Really, though ... even if all three players are asking for a combined $152 million, the Jets don’t have to bow down to that price or let them go. There’s a give-and-take to just about all of these processes, and one would assume that the Jets may try to dial down the term for Byfuglien/Ladd and use their leverage advantage with Trouba, who’s a restricted free agent.
Friedman mentions that he doesn’t want to make it “reporter vs. reporter” with Campbell, and that makes sense for a host of reasons. Most obviously, these details rarely become public knowledge, as contract talks can bleed into public relations situations (among other concerns).
Just look at David Price’s agent discussing how much the pitcher loved playing for the Toronto Blue Jays and you’ll see that the spin can even persist after the ink’s already dried on a deal.