Almost $3,000,000 over 3 years?
Mike Gould on his way to Ratz headquarters late Monday night Bonny River, NB - The Bonny River Ratz have reportedly reached a tentative deal with Mike Gould to coach the storied franchise. One report has Gould agreeing to a $2.75 million deal stretched over three years. The story has caused a great deal of anxiety in the local hockey scene.
One outspoken person was Kingfishers GM Matty Walsh who called the deal "foolish." "You mean to tell me that an industrial hockey league team can pay a coach almost a million bucks a year? This will ruin the league if they are throwing that kind of cake around. We ain't got it and I'm sure nobody else does," noted Walsh as he left Kingfishers headquarters early Tuesday.
The story broke on the heels of a story that Ratz star Mark Taylor had just signed a one year extension on his current 9 year deal. According to sources, Gould jumped when he heard the news that Taylor has signed the extension. It has been speculated that Gould told Ratz management that they had to show him they were serious about winning and this was the piece to the puzzle.
Team spokesman Joe Stevens did meet with reporters briefly early Tuesday. He offered, "Although I am not going to confirm the numbers being thrown around by Walsh and others, let's just say Gould can give up his day job. We need him to concentrate on the day to day stuff right away. It kind of went under the radar, but the Ratz locked up Taylor last week until at least the 2020-2021 season. Gould made it clear that he wasn't going to be a part of any rebuilding program and wanted to re-load instead. Let's all hope everybody survives the cuts that may or may not come about. We have 15 guys on the roster with one year deals that expire this summer. We only know of one guy who will be here for sure this fall so it's wide open."