Sometimes don't you feel like you want to smack Esa Tikkanen upside the head? Some of the stuff he does is ridiculous. His contract demands are outrageous. To say that what he is being offered (1.2 million) is a joke? That's ludicrous! Absolutely ludicrous! People would kill for that money.

Tikkanen looks like another million dollar athlete who takes the position of a prima donna. And he isn't the only one, Mogilny is like that too, Jeff Brown as well, and there are a lot of other players in the league who are like that. I wish we could stick them in the real world, with real jobs and see how they would react. Sometimes players have to realize that they aren't the center of the world.

But Esa goes beyond that. Instead of playing it out he demands a contract and threatens to pull himself out of the line up! What ever happened to honoring your contract. Sure Shannie was acting like a prima donna, but at least he played. Tikkanen is going out of his way to be a pain in the ass. Something that the Canucks don't mind, as long as he leaves it on the ice.

If Esa thinks he can get a big salary at the end of the season, he is wrong. He doesn't have many years left, and his knees are wonky. To be honest, (and Tikkanen knows it) the Canucks saved his career and this is how he repays them. No one is going to pay Esa 2.5 million. Although he is a great asset to any team, no one will feel that he is worth it. Just watch.

So my advice to Tikkanen is smarten up and be a man. Honor your contract. Honor your team. Don't disappoint them. The Canucks are happy to keep him, but at a reasonable price. It will be interesting to see how this all folds out.

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