Az egyik fórumozó írta be az Allducks-on,érdemes elolvasni, amennyiben igazságra alapul, megtudhatjuk belőle, hogy Kariya miként is távozott tőlünk 2003-ban! Kissé más sztori, mint amit eddig tudtam:

interesting read about how Kariya left the Ducks. Doesn't sound as bad as Murray made it out to be...
When we didn’t qualify him, Paul was free to make any decision he wanted to make," Murray said Friday during the Ducks-Kings exhibition game at The Pond. "I understood that."

What Murray didn’t understand was Kariya telling me he was "surprised, for sure" by the Ducks’ decision not to make him a $10 million qualifying offer. That’s because Murray said he had told player and agent his plan to bring back Kariya at a reduced salary and use the money saved to try to sign free agent Teemu Selanne, Kariya’s former linemate and longtime friend.

Murray wasn’t allowed to use Selanne’s name at the time, because Teemu didn’t become an unrestricted free agent until July 1, but all parties knew that was Anaheim’s primary offseason target. Conveniently, Baizley also represents Selanne.

And Murray said Kariya initially was receptive to his double-pronged objective when he first approached the Ducks captain about the possibility of signing for less. This was shortly after the Stanley Cup Finals and after Murray had met with Disney executives to discuss next season’s budget and his plan to improve the team.

"I made a decision ... the company made a decision (not to spend $10 million on Kariya); we were trying to get better here," Murray said. "We have a budget, and we knew (goaltender J-S) Giguere was going to take a big piece of the (allotted payroll) increase. That was part of the plan, to sign another quality player and take care of a couple players (presumably Giguere and Petr Sykora) who were going to get new contracts.

"I talked to Paul about that and said, ‘Are you OK with this, Paul?’ And he said, ‘Bryan, I’ve made a lot of money over the last few years.’ And I said (jokingly), ‘You mean the $50 million you’ve made over the last five years covers you?’ And he said, ‘It’s not about the money with me. I want to win a Stanley Cup.

"And I said, ‘I do, too. And what I’d like to do ... I’m not going to qualify you at $10 million. There are reasons for and against doing it. But I’ll try to get your buddy here, too.’ We had talked about Teemu before. And he said, ‘I understand, I understand.’ "

A week later, during the June 20 NHL entry draft in Nashville, Murray said he met with Baizley three times and repeated what Kariya had told him. But Baizley told Murray if Kariya didn’t receive a qualifying offer, he said his client likely would explore the market.

"And I said, ‘I understand that, but will you give us a chance (to make a counteroffer)?’ " Murray recalled. "And he said, ‘That will be up to Paul, but I’m sure we will.’ "

On June 29, Murray said he received a call from Kariya while the GM was vacationing in Canada with his family.

"That was the first time he said to me, ‘Bryan, if you don’t qualify me, I think I should look around,’ " Murray said. "I asked him what had happened? ‘Are you talking to the (players) union? Have you talked to Don? Is it about money, Paul?’ "

Murray had figured the union might get involved and advise Kariya not to take anything less than a qualifying offer, but Kariya said no and insisted he wasn’t upset, that he merely wanted to see who might be interested.

All of which is why Murray didn’t understand why Kariya expressed surprise after receiving official word the next day that the Ducks weren’t qualifying him.

Two days later, Baizley called Murray to tell him Kariya was looking elsewhere.

"And I said, ‘Can we negotiate?’ " Murray said. "Because I had said to Don, ‘What I’d like to do is give Paul $5 million and Teemu $5 million.’ "

Baizley said it wasn’t about the money, which became obvious the next day when Kariya signed with Colorado for $1.2 million, as did Selanne, who signed for $5.8 million.

"Paul called me the third of July, in the morning, before he got on the plane to go to Colorado," Murray said. "And he said, ‘Bryan, I’m going elsewhere. I’m not mad. Thanks a lot for everything.’ "

Kariya explained that he signed for such a low amount so he could protect his unrestricted free-agent status after one season, but Murray said he could have had $5 million in Anaheim and a promise of unrestricted free agency if things didn’t go well.

"I told the (Disney) company guys that there were no guarantees (Kariya would return for less money)," Murray said. "I wasn’t shocked and it wasn’t a gamble, but I kind of thought from talking to them that he was OK with it."