The Washington Capitals have spurned unrestricted free agent Eric Belanger. Belanger recently signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Phoenix Coyotes. However, Belanger and his agent—prominent New York defense lawyer Joe Tacopina—state that they had a contract in place with the Capitals for a one-year deal worth $1.85 million.
The Capitals insist that while they were discussing a contract, GM George McPhee was never involved in the negotiations and a solid agreement was never reached. However, the Capitals did go as far as offering assistance finding Belanger's two daughters a school and helping find the family a new home.
Now for some reason the fact that Tacopina was working with assistant GM Don Fisher is supposed to mean that the deal was less legitimate, however as many know, assistant GM's sign players all the time.
What is of interest is a letter sent to McPhee from Tacopina. It states: "Don sent me a text message confirming our agreement."
Contrary to popular belief, a legally binding agreement often constitutes verbal and written consent between two parties. If this text message does in fact collaborate what th ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Cale Loney
Washington Capitals: Eric Belanger Situation and Others Raise Red Flag
September 15th, 2010 by Cale Loney Leave a reply »
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