Pretty fitting that Rideau View Golf Club was the scene where Senators assistant general manager Pierre Dorion teed off on the comments made by Marc Methot and his representative Larry Kelly at today’s Bell/Senators Charity Golf Classic that unofficially signals the start of the Senators’ training camp.
The comments from Methot’s camp were featured in an article by Don Brennan that chronicled how the figures being swapped between the two parties were not that far off – a far cry from the picture that was described by Bryan Murray during his own sit down interview with TSN’s Bob McKenzie.
“That’s a surprising comment,” Kelly told the Sun. “His last offer was 4.7 (million) over five years, starting at 4.5, and our last offer was 5 (million) AAV (average annual salary), over five years, starting at 4.5.”
A defensive Methot was also quoted within Brennan’s piece and he seemed agitated by Bryan Murray’s assertion that the Senators will likely put the veteran defenceman on the trade block at some point in the future if it cannot come to terms on an agreement.
“It’s at the stage where I’m really not comfortable that the team wants to do anything (on a new deal),” a disappointed Methot told the Sun Tuesday.
Having listened to Murray’s interview, the general manager didn’t come off as antagonistic, so if Methot is questioning Ottawa’s motivations in this situation, he shouldn’t. Murray’s “threat” is just a reality of the business of sports. The Senators are a budget team that many project to be a bubble playoff team. As good or as poorly as they may play, you cannot blame management for reaffirming the philosophy that the organization cannot afford to lose Methot for nothing should he elect to test the unrestricted free agent market in July.
At the same time, I can also understand where Methot’s camp is coming from. When the original reports of Methot’s camp asking for six-years at $5.5 million per season, it came from the Senators camp and Murray was also responsible for creating leverage in the negotiations by essentially telling Bob McKenzie that if Methot wants to stay in Ottawa, he’ll have to do it at management’s price.
For a player, who from all accounts wants to remain in Ottawa, I can’t necessarily blame him for going on the record with the Ottawa Sun so that he can let the fans know that he’s already made a number of concessions in the negotiations.
But even with those things considered, it didn’t stop Pierre Dorion from going off on TSN 1200’s ‘In the Box’.
When asked to comment on today’s article, Dorion quipped that his comments would be brief before going on a long-winded rant about how unprofessional and disappointing Methot’s camp’s comments were.
“Yeah, just a brief comment. First of all, it’s disappointing. I’ve been with the team for eight years and I don’t know if I’ve been more disappointed by (anything that’s been) written. Usually Bryan (Murray) and Larry (Kelly) are doing the contract. I’ve been privy to some information along the way just because of what happened earlier in the summer, so I had some discussions with Larry. I don’t think you go (through the media) this way to do a contract. I think from day one, we’ve said we’re going to try and sign all of our unrestricted free agents that will become unrestricted free agents at the end of the year. The information’s written in that article is totally false and there’s no other way to put about it. And then, you put us in a corner which isn’t fair and we’ve said we’ve wanted to try and sign Marc (Methot) from day one and I think to me, it’s negotiation 101 in bad faith.”
He even refuted the terms that Larry Kelly put out there.
“I am undeniably disputing those figures and it’s just, I don’t know how this article came about, but we try to do things right in Ottawa. We try to treat our players well. Bryan, right from day one, has always said, ‘We’ll always do what’s right for the team, for the fans, for us to allow us to win.’ Marc’s under contract until the end of June, but it’s just… I was flabbergasted when I read that this morning.”
And when the hosts tried to steer the conversation in a different direction by asking about Bobby Ryan, an obviously perturbed Dorion couldn’t help but take a dig at Kelly’s negotiating through the media tactics.
“I think so. We’ve said it. Like, this is the difference. Donny Meehan’s group would never pull any stuff like this. Larry (Kelly) goes about it and pulls stuff like this. It’s disappointing, but Donny (Meehan’s group) they’ve been polite and the discussions as recently as last week, have been tremendous. Bobby wants to see where fits in on this group. He wants to be the key forward guy and you can’t blame him. He’s got the talent and the tools to be the key forward guy. He’s got the talent to carry the group as the key forward –the guy that everything runs through offensively from the forward end. You know Erik (Karlsson) is the guy on the back end that everything runs through offensively, and he just wants to see how he fits in, you know, with Jason (Spezza) leaving. So they’ve been very honest and open about the negotiations. Well, then you see something like this this morning and you see Marc (Methot) gets quoted – which, players should barely get quoted. Let your agent get quoted and then Larry gets quoted and for us, we just felt that there was nothing to comment about.”
When asked whether a cooling off period is needed, Dorion went one step further to say that their tactics are the kind of thing that makes him question whether or not it’s even worthwhile bringing Methot back.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. You know that Bryan (Murray) is doing the negotiations. Bryan has been around a lot and he knows exactly what he feels the number is. He’s talked to both myself and Randy (Lee) where we feel would be a fair number. The other thing that’s not accurate is the term. Whatever’s been said about the term is not even close to being true. What’s disappointing is and I’m sorry I’m using the word disappointing, but we just want to do things right here. It’s not that people say we’re a budget team. No, no, we’re not a budget team. We’re a team that spends money wisely. We can go and sign a bunch of contracts to millions and millions of dollars and have to buy them out in three years. But no, we do things right here. From day one, Bryan, Paul (MacLean), Randy (Lee) and myself, we’ve always felt that we know we want to keep Marc around, but then you see stuff like this and you ask, ‘Is it worth it?’”
Dorion would go on emphasize that the organization wants to keep Methot in the fold, but regardless, the damage was already done. When both sides negotiate through the media and try to throw each other under the bus to make themselves look like the victim, they both look worse for wear.
It’s silly season in Ottawa and training camp hasn’t even officially started yet.
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