Did the Senators tamper with Claude Giroux? This story makes it seem possible
Before Claude Giroux signed a three-year deal with the Ottawa Senators on July 13th, it was widely speculated he was going to end up in the Nation's Capital to wrap up his career. But, just how soon did Ottawa make it clear that they were interested in bringing the hometown boy back to his old stomping grounds?
According to an interview Giroux did with Faces Magazine recently, it sounds as if the persuasion game started in-season, during the All-Star weekend when Giroux was still with the Philadelphia Flyers. It sounds as though the Sens organization used some rather questionable tactics to get Giroux thinking about possibly playing in Ottawa.
It was at the All-Star game last year. Brady came up to me. I had never really met him before. He goes, "I was told to be nice to you this weekend, so you can maybe come with us (to Ottawa) next year." It was a joke. And I really didn't think anything of it. Since then, I never thought it would actually happen. But here I am.
Is it just me, or is tampering a word that comes to mind in a situation like this? I know the media picks up on terms of contracts a few days before they're signed during the lead-up to Free Agency, but to me, this is vastly different. Giroux may have passed it off as a joke, but there was clear intent here by the Senators organization as a whole in an attempt to bring Giroux "home" once his contract was over.
That, by definition, is tampering and it's even worse because it's not like in the case of Jack Campbell where the season was over, Giroux was still actively playing for the Flyers.
I doubt the NHL will look into this, they should though. This is one of the most blatant cases of tampering I've ever seen and it should be treated as such.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 3 | 146 ANSWERS Did the Senators tamper with Claude Giroux? This story makes it seem possible Do you consider this tampering? | ||
| Yes, it's tampering | 47 | 32.2 % |
| No, it's a conversation between players | 58 | 39.7 % |
| This is definitely a grey area | 41 | 28.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
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