Schenn heads south with O'Reilly; there's a good chance that the Preds were guilty of tampering
It took all of 2 minutes once 12PM hit and free agents could officially speak to teams for Luke Schenn to sign in the Western Conference. Earlier today, we reported that Schenn and the Leafs had been talking, but Schenn decided to "test" the free agent market as he received a significant offer.
The deal, as we now know, is for 3 years with a cap hit of $2.75M per season. For someone that is 33 and has primarily been a third pairing defenseman the last few years of his career, that is a very high price to pay. Good for Schenn for getting paid as he becomes yet another player who cashes in after having a resurgence in Toronto.
However, there appears to be some tampering here from Nashville as it was reported a few short weeks ago that the Leafs and Schenn were very close to signing a new contract. Considering teams are not allowed to speak with pending UFAs until noon on July 1st, how did Schenn know he had an offer from Nashville that he'd want to wait for before then? There was clearly some sort of contact between Schenn and the Predators before they could officially talk.
There are instances where teams give players permission to speak to other teams before July 1st at 12PM, but given the fact that the Leafs and Schenn were discussing an extension up until yesterday, it is highly unlikely the Leafs had given permission for him to speak to other teams. It will be interesting to see if the Leafs file a grievance with the league or not, regardless, it is clear that there was tampering in this case.
