It sounds like everyone is still very confused.
Let me help you with that:
Tanguay isn't returninig and Vermette won't be getting Top Two PP time this season.
Vermette had 21 EV pts in 76gp last year = 0.28EVppg
58gp 24ps without Tanguay = .41ppg
18gp 14pts with Tanguay = .78ppg
Vermette with Tanguay:
184:08 time played
Goals for per 60 3.91
Goals against per 60 0.98
Vermette without Tanguay:
735:20 time played
Goals for per 60 1.71
Goals against per 60 3.18
Without Tanguay, and without significant PP time, Vermette was headed for a cliff. Without late season chemistry with Tanguay and top PP minutes, Vermette would've likely been a 25pt player last season. Now he's a year older.
In management's minds, they simply removed him while they still could. Otherwise they'd be paying 100% of his salary for him to play for the AHL affiliate in Tucson. Instead they only have to pay 66% of his salary and he gets to sell his wares to another NHL team.
Their thinking is that this is better for the club and better for the player.
Some further reading that is very, very interesting:
Individual penalty differential isn’t exactly a statistic that’s regularly used, but can certainly help a team determine whether a player is tangibly affecting overall ability to get through a game without playing shorthanded.
Players with positive penalty differentials draw more penalties than they take, and negative differentials are the opposite.
Last season, Vermette finished the year with six individual penalties drawn… but with 25 individual penalties taken.
Per Corsica Hockey, that was good for a minus-19 differential at even strength, worst on the team by a full five penalities (defenseman Connor Murphy was the second worst, with a minus-14). Even controversial Coyotes forwards like Shane Doan and Martin Hanzal, both of whom are no stranger to the penalty box, did a better job of balancing out their transgressions with power play opportunities provided.
For Vermette, there wasn’t exactly a preconceived notion that he was drawing penalties for the team. If anything, there was a sense of frustration surrounding his play because of his time spent in the box – but where some players only seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time in the box, Vermette actually did.
That, combined with his poor possession play, certainly helps explain why the team was willing to shell out money just so he wouldn’t play next year.
http://www.todaysslapshot.com/nhl-w...toine-vermette-buyout-necessary-evil-arizona/
^ important to note that the Coyotes had one of the league's worst PK% last season, as well.
Summary: Management likely believes he's going to be awful without choice PP mins and Alex Tanguay. He's also a penalty taking machine that never draws any. They feel he's a net negative.
Without Tanguay, he was an offensive black-hole last season. Apart from the PP where the majority of his production came. This season, he wouldn't have been getting any PP time, and Tanguay is gone.
The Coyotes were looking at 20-25pt center who's PK usage had declined so much he barely managed to get 1min/gp on the PK last season, despite his team having one of the league's worst penalty kills. Though, it's not a shock he had reduced PK minutes, given that he took 20 more penalties than he drew last season, which was worst on the team.
He was an undisciplined player last season, which hurt the team. He wasn't a contributor at even strength, and was looking at having only even strength minutes in the upcoming season.
Obviously management (and Dave Tippett is both the coach and John Chayka's boss) feel that the team is better off without Vermette because he's a net negative player that hurts the team on the ice more than he helps the team on the ice. The numbers certainly suggest that's the case, and when you took the time to give it the eye-test, it's not surprising that the numbers shake out that way.
2.5million & Vermette not on ice > 3.75million & Vermette on ice
If he can clean up the minor penalties, and he comes cheap enough, he should be a fine 4th line center.
76gp 21EVpts = 0.28EVppg
58gp 24pts without Tanguay = .41ppg
76gp 38pts 21EVpts = 55% of pts at EV
.41ppg w/o Tanguay x 82gp = 34pts x .55EV = 19pts
A healthy Vermette with no Tanguay and no PP time gets you around 20pts
