Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Flyers made offer for Marty Turco

Some interesting developments this morning as ESPN is reporting, several times and by several different mediums, that the Philadelphia Flyers have reached out and made an offer to impending free agent goaltender Marty Turco. Supposedly the offer was for $2 million a year, a far cry from the $5.8 million he made last season and certainly not the paycut he was expecting to take.

When Turco was reached, he acknowledged the offer before saying he’s willing to wait and see what the free agency market shakes out to be.

This doesn’t sound right, does it?

Technically, what the Flyers just did was tampering a potential free agent. Technically, Marty Turco still belongs to the Dallas Stars and other teams cannot enter into negotiations with a player who is under contract with another team.

ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun shakes this off and says it’s o.k., since the Dallas Stars “gave permission” to the Flyers to make an offer to Turco. I still don’t understand how that would work, since the Flyers wouldn’t be able to sign him to that offer anyways, since he’s still under contract by the Stars.

One option would be that if Turco did agree with the offer, then the Stars would likely trade his rights to Philadelphia in exchange for a conditional draft pick. Even if that were the case, it still feels as if the two teams are dancing on a fine line with tampering.

Talking with the media on Saturday after the draft, GM Paul Holmgren was careful not to say anything that could be regarded as tampering. When asked if he could negotiate with a player’s agent if he had permission to and he was particularly vague about the answer.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this shakes out. As far as this actual issue stands, it doesn’t appear to be anything other than talk. Despite the paycut he’ll have to take, Turco is going to make more than $2 million next season; I can understand why he turned down that offer.