Photo credit: Bob DeChiara – USA Today Sports

The Tyler Bertuzzi deal in Chicago is among several free agent signings that Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly is investigating over suspected tampering.

The issue of tampering has been prevalent for a number of years now, with virtually nothing being done to deal with the problem.

Elliotte Friedman took to his “32 Thoughts” podcast this week to give his two cents on the issue. On one hand, he believes the player should make it a prerogative to want to have it settled as soon as possible, even if that means a little bit of tampering. However, he also understands the league wants to cut down on any possible advantage that some teams could have over the rest of the league.
“The tampering warning was interesting. As a player, I’d see it as a necessary evil if you’re not going to have the free agency dating period. If I’m going to be making a decision about what’s best for my family and career, I’d rather stealthily make it with some preparation as opposed to a flood of information and take-it-or-leave-it offers on July 1. What it says to me is the league is looking to punish someone who is overly blatant or not careful (and let’s face it, many teams are just as guilty as the agents). But, the league doesn’t need a complaint to act.

When Toronto signed John Tavares, it was investigated – and cleared – without the Islanders asking.”

Some of the deals that Daly believes involved some form of tampering included the summer signings of Tyler Bertuzzi, Brandon Montour, Tyler Toffoli, and Brett Pesce.

A lot of the information about these aforementioned signings were breaking well before the July 1st noon deadline. There is one caveat to this situation in that you can trade for their negotiating rights – as the Toronto Maple Leafs did with Chris Tanev – but none of that occurred in these instances.

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun went a step further and detailed his conversation with the Deputy Commissioner and how he wants to emphasize the rules surrounding tampering and the repercussions involved, including fines and/or loss of draft picks:
“As Bill Daly told me afterwards, more of a refresher, that the league has not talked about or emphasized the rules around tampering for a few years now and he felt now that it was time and I asked him why it was time and he said that he was, quote, a little uncomfortable with some of the commentary in the media reported heading into July 1st last year and gave them the impression that there’s been negotiations before July 1st and he just wanted to remind GMs that you can’t do that before July 1st and there are repercussions in terms of fines and/or potential loss of draft picks. So we’ll see what impact that conversation from Bill Daly had ahead of next July 1st.”
 

Bertuzzi is an interesting case because he openly admitted that Chicago Blackhawks’ captain, Nick Foligno, actually called him the day before free agency to let him know the organization was interested.

Bertuzzi said Chicago wasn’t on his radar before that phone call, giving way to obvious tampering claims that were never really addressed by the NHL.

It remains to be seen if the NHL will find any evidence towards tampering, Bertuzzi’s case seemed pretty cut and dry. If Daly’s investigation does yield anything, it will be interesting to see the ramifications it will have on the present and future standing of the annual free agent frenzy.