Campbell Has a Legit Family Reason, Unfortunately
June 28th, 2008, 9:28 am
There’s been a lot of talk about Brian Campbell around Sharksland the last few days, with these posts from David Pollak of the Merc, this one from Mike Chen, and probably many others around the blogosphere. Of course we’re all up in a lather about the premier free agent defenseman leaving San Jose, probably for more money elsewhere.
But that’s no longer the full story. The first Pollak post alludes to “family matters”, while the second quotes Campbell as being “spoiled” since his family got to go to a lot of games in Buffalo. I’m know I’m burying the lead here, but now that I’ve discovered the wonder of NHL Live on the NHL Network, there’s actually a bit more information that I can lend to this story, for what I would consider a very reliable source- Kevin Allen of USA Today. He said on the show this week (and I’m pretty sure this is an exact quote) that the major reason why Campbell would want to come back East is because of a “family illness.”
This puts a big brick on that side of the scale. Couple that with the prospect of other teams like the Rangers and Blackhawks being in a financial position to outbid the Sharks, I think the chances of Campbell being locked up before July 1 are now best described as “miniscule”.
I hope Doug Wilson has a hell of a sales pitch. Between the prospect of more money and being closer to a sick family member, who could honestly blame Campbell for leaving?
Me, for one. But I’m an asshole.
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Sorry for being skeptical, but knowing what went on here in Buffalo, I think Campbell’s #1 motivation is money. He never talked about wanting to stay in Buffalo, but never appeared to be ready to take less than the absolute top $$ to do it….I never heard anything about “family illness” here ever, so unless it is a recent problem…I don’t truly get the relevance as when you play in the NHL you don’t have much time to devote to family whether they are 300 or 3000 miles away…I will be curious to hear more on this.
Well, the family illness is something I heard only one place, and that’s on the NHL Live show. Kevin Allen has been reporting on the NHL for over 20 years, so he would know. And maybe BC’s #1 motivation is money, but the difference between playing in the east and west travel-wise is huge.
I’m not saying the family illness isn’t true – I don’t know one way or the other. I’m just saying that even without it, he would be looking for the best deal. Just the impression I have gotten over the last year about him and his agent. Lot’s of mouth noises about how much he loved Buffalo and didn’t want to leave, but in the end he wanted more money.
Cry me a river. If Campbell’s family issues are so signifcant and playing in the East to stay close to his family is such a top priority, he should’ve just taken what Buffalo offered rather than making such a stink.
For all we know, the illness could be a recent development. There was no mention of anything like that around the trade deadline.
Without all the info, we don’t know how serious the family illness is or how much time this person may have left. It must be recent and it can only explain why Doug Wilson has allowed other teams to discuss terms with Campbell’s agent before July 1st.
You can look to how classy the Utah Jazz were last season when Derek Fisher’s little girl needed to be near better hospital care for her illness, and they let him out of his contract so he could sign with LA. Sometimes life takes priority over hockey…and in this case, if the illness is serious, I can’t fault Campbell for being on the East coast. Would you really want to shell out mega bucks for a player who’s head won’t be in the right place? Here is how close his East Coast options are to home.
Maple Leafs 140 miles from home
Blue Jackets 308 miles from home
Blackhawks 384 miles from home
Penguins 385 miles from home
Rangers 560 miles from home
Flyers 565 miles from home
And then San Jose 2535 miles from home
A five hour drive to Pittsburgh or a two hour flight to New York vs. 2535 miles away in San Jose. If the illness is serious, then the Sharks are out of luck.
With the kind of money he’s going to be making, he should/could just move the family. UCSF, and Stanford have phenominal medical facilities – better than his family could get almost anywhere else.
Unless of course the illness is the dreaded “can’t-live-without-winter-don’t-do-sushi-teal-isn’t-a-primary-color-itis”.
We’ll soon see if he chooses Cup opportunity or not.
“The Blackhawks are an up and coming team,” Campbell said. “They want to make their franchise a place where people want to play. I owe a lot to San Jose, but I wanted to be closer to home.”
Translation: San Jose wasn’t going to pay me $7.1 mil a year and I went for the money grab.
Is Brooks Orpik DW’s definition of blue-collar because Soupy apparently isn’t. If we don’t get a puck-mover to show Carle and Wishart how to run a PP, we may not even make it to the 2nd round.
I especially enjoy the fact that we could’ve traded Marleau for an early- to mid-first round pick and shed about 6M. Now DW has to get a poor man’s BC without having any knowledge of whether he’ll fit in. I look forward to making a run at the Cup in 2011.
Told ya so! (See my earlier posts.) His choice had nothing to do with “being close to home” and all to do with “who’ll give me the biggest check”. Not that I blame him for it, he lucked into being the most sought-out defenseman in free agency. You can read my Sabres-blog comments from last month about him to know what I think. But, in short, here’s the good news Sharks fans…at that price, you are better off without him.
I totally agree with you PeterS. At that price, we’re totally better off without him. Like I said, if McLellan can restore Carle’s confidence, we’ve pretty much got Brian Campbell at less than half the price.
As for what DW’s looking for in a defenseman, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s Brooks Orpik. When DW played, he was quite the finesse player if I recall. In other words, even though Orpik is exactly what this Sharks team needs, he doesn’t exactly fit DW’s style. That’s why I’m sure it pained DW to lose Campbell.