I’m not convinced there’s a story here, unless you want to go back to every LensCrafters signing since the lockout and show a pattern of this sort of thing in the NHL. Because we see this every year.

Or is it only a story because now it’s a free agent from a Canadian team?

I just offered my thoughts on this as a fanshot at Raw Charge. The question isn’t even worth answering if morons like Brooks and Gallagher are asking them. Especially Gallagher, who’s on a major “Vancouver would win the Cup every year if not for the other teams” kick the past couple weeks.

Everyone knew Ohlund was leaving Vancouver, so that’s a non-issue. The team wasn’t even going to offer him a deal.

What is worth asking is how did it get done so quickly? Doogie’s right that that’s happened often in the past, but I don’t have those signings in front of me. Here’s a recent example — so let’s ask the question: Was this fair?

1) Tampering? Probably, but how do you prove it, and as interesting, would Brooks ask the question if the Rangers signed a big named UFA at 12:01 pm July 1st?

Under the old CBA, a lot of teams gave team’s permission to talk to pending UFA’s they weren’t interested in signing without any compensation. I remember that’s how Guerin became a Dallas Star… they were talking to him for a week. It used to be fairly common practice, but now some teams have managed to extract a value on some players’ rights.

It’s possible that Vancouver did the same thing Detroit did with Hossa, granting a few teams the right to negotiate with Ohlund before July 1. In fact, it could be that Tampa received this right as closure of a “future consideration” from a previous deal… was there anything attached to the Kraijcek/O’Brien swap? Who knows. You often never hear exactly what those future considerations end up being.

That smack you heard was the NHL’ s credibility taking another shot to the ’nads.

To me these questions are worth asking every year. 15 minutes, two hours — for a fan, the question is the same: How do major deals get worked out so quickly? How do free agents feel comfortable jumping so early? How do those pre-free agent period rumors of “Team X is poised to make a run at Player Y” end up proving, well, true if any contact regarding that player is illegal?

If we imagine everything is on the up-and-up, I’d suspect things like Draft weekend conversations and general “business of hockey” discussions between agents and GMs grease the wheels for quick deals in general. Doesn’t matter if an agent and team haven’t talked about a specific player — they may have talked about existing signed players (and that team’s general hockey needs) as well as talked to third parties who inevitably spill the beans.

Suppose:

• TB tells people “we hope to bring in a Swedish mentor for Hedman”
• Everyone knows Vancouver isn’t going to retain Ohlund
• An agent is always out there polling teams’ general plans (e.g., “So … do you agree your D needs an upgrade? Why isn’t my LW client getting more ice time with you?”)
• A team knows generally how an agent likes to work (“His big thing for his clients is always a free carwash” or “he doesn’t care about NMC if the money is right”)
• Before July 1, TB already has an offer sketched out, and an agent already has an idea of who might come calling. In Ohlund’s case, people talked about Pronger, JayBo, and Kaberle as moving targets more than Ohlund.

When I’ve tried to figure out for myself how quick deals (granted, rarely this quick) go on every year without a fuss, these are the scenarios I’ve pictured. So an offer comes in at 12:01, an agent has already prepared his player for potential suitors, and when he sees numbers like that, he might even have definitive advice for his client: “I’d be stunned if you get a more lucrative or longer-term offer.”

That’s how I dream it up, anyway.

Maybe Ohlund and his agent, not wanting to dink around with free agency, made a general announcement letting everyone know what he wanted. And, obviously, the Canucks told them that they weren’t going to give it to him. Then the Lightning get to draft Hedman, and immediately decide that it’s now in their best interest to snap up Ohlund ASAP and give him exactly – and/or more – than he wants at exactly noon.

So Ohlund takes it figuring he won’t get any better offer. Or, franklly, a better situation with being guaranteed top dog on D, helping out a Hedman who needs him, and living in the sub-tropics – team ownership notwithstanding. Done deal.

Then again, maybe Ohlund wants to play in Tampa for reasons that have nothing to do with money or even hockey. What or why, I couldn’t even begin to guess. But, stranger things have happened.

I’m guessing Tampa threw it out there and Ohlund grabbed it with both hands as fast as he could before anyone from the Bolts had 30 second to come to their senses. I mean, it conceivable that Tampa knew who they wanted to target and had the offer ready and Ohlund, being a smart guy, realized there was no offer on the market that was going to come close for term or $, and said yes. Course, if he had just held out 15 more minutes, perhaps he could have got a 1% share in the team and residuals from the next six movies in the Saw franchise.

I can say categorically as a Canucks fan I am much more interested in a potential tampering allegation against the Maple Leafs for Ron Wilson’ deliciously boneheaded comments on the radio the day before July 1 — Link right here.

I commented, not to lament Ohlund’s leaving, but to point out how the league’s rules and by-laws seem to be nothing more than guidelines. It’s almost like ’ this is how we want you to do things, but if that way feels better, fill your boots’. The NHL is getting almost as dysfunctional as MLB.