Report: Shaw's agent says reports of his demands were fabricated.

During the process that saw Andrew Shaw go from Chicago Blackhawk to Montreal Canadien rumors surfaced that the motivation behind the trade was a big time contract demand from Shaw.

Those reports suggested that Shaw was seeking a contract with an average annual value of $4.5 million, something that seemed very strange after he agreed to a long term deal with Montreal worth an average annual value of $3.9 million. 

Today reporter Scott Powers spoke to Shaw's agent Pat Brisson who once again denied the reports of any such demand from his client.

“The Blackhawks did everything they could to sign ‘Shawzsy,’” Brisson said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “They just don’t have the cap space. Contrary to reports, we didn’t ask for $4.5 million.”

In fact Powers reports that while Shaw was asking for a major commitment in regards to the terms of the contract, his financial demands were very reasonable by comparison.

From Powers in The Athletic:

Shaw was looking for a contract around seven or eight years with about a $3.2 million cap hit, according to a source. The Blackhawks couldn’t do more than $3 million.

Likely the upcoming paydays of young stars like Artemi Panarin were motivating factors for Bowman in his decision making process., but if Powers is on the money it's a tough break for both the Blackhawks and Shaw.

[pub]