Reply to thread

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, but we've still handled this in a very irresponsible way by not declaring that Chad is a required player.

The worst case scenario here is that he demands a trade now and we've spent the offseason lowering his value with nonchalance, with his most likely suitors unable to do a deal due to not having the draft currency. The equal worst case scenario is that he speaks with a bunch of opposition coaches who offer him the world and he gets a huge offer in the free agency next year, but for ~reasons~ we only get an end of 1st round compo pick so we're forced to match anyway.

The worst possible way to lose a player is for him to demand a trade to a specific club, because it's always difficult to get market value. This is the situation we seem to be engineering for ourselves. If he demands to be traded to the Bulldogs, we won't get adequate value for him and next year you can bet your bottom dollar that free agency compo is either scrapped or nerfed so we end up losing him for basically nothing and can't even cash in that way.

Just tell him he's a required player and he won't be traded. Then if he forces a move it's at least outwardly against our will and we can negotiate from that position.