The Flyers Godfather

"Make them an offer they can't refuse."

As more details come about the Weber offer sheet, I think it's a fairly entertaining story.

For starters, Weber visited the Flyers (and the Rangers) recently, and the Flyers entered serious trade negotiations with Nashville.  Reportedly, Weber decided Philadelphia was where he wanted to be, and he and his agent made that clear to Nashville.

The entertaining part to me is Ed Snider's involvement.  For one, a team can't offer a contract like the Flyers did to Weber without ownership approval or encouragement.  In the case of Snider, it's probably encouragement.  Two, supposedly Snider himself gave Weber private tours of the Flyers facilities, including ordering everyone to immediately vacate the premises for his private tour and private meal in a back room.  This will remind Flyers fans of Snider's courtship of Bryzgalov, using Snider's private jet.

In trade talks, Nashville wanted Couturier AND Schenn, plus other parts.  Obviously, the Flyers balked.  Not only did the Flyers balk at that demand, they threw it back in Nashville's face with a huge offer sheet.  The prevailing wisdom is that an offer sheet would be practically a favor to Nashville because then they could simply match and thus avoid the complications of negotiating with Weber themselves, but perhaps the Flyers made the financial terms of the offer so onerous ($27m due in one calendar year) that Nashville ownership won't approve of matching.

There may yet still be a trade between Nashville and the Flyers regarding Weber, but the Flyers didn't like the way talks were going, and in turn made it a more dangerous game for Nashville.

It's hard to say what happens next, but I like Bill Meltzer's take on the situation here, which forcefully advocates a trade based on Voracek, Meszaros and first round picks as I speculated the other day.

On to Doan
After the Godfather successfully wined and dined Weber, it was widely reported that Doan visited.  I actually wouldn't make too much of this, because Doan is basically on a tour of NHL team, including NY and Detroit, among others.  I'm not sure if the Weber signing going through increases or decreases the likelihood of Doan signing in Philly, but Doan is clearly in no hurry to sign anywhere yet.