So, let me get this straight, ownership.

Just a month ago, we were denied a trade that involved dozens of hours of work, 9 different people involved, all for a technicality - and were told we couldn't take the five minutes to rectify said trade because "the rules are black and white" and "a deadline is set for a reason"...

Then you turn around and soften those doctrines for someone who's been a GM for how long now? Who passed the deadline by an hour, not five minutes? Under what pretext? What differs from situation A to situation B?

The rule wasn't written in that spirit - well neither was the Jack Crasher (UFA contract protection, as far as I know) yet you still used it to justify a circumvention of rules - rules that were clarified for every GM to see.

I'm baffled. HO didn't drop the ball - the owners did. And the outlook, especially with which franchise is escaping with a slap on the wrist, is dire at best.