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Devils discussion (news, notes and speculation) - part III

Nikita Gusev took a mutual termination of his contract in 2021. He went to Florida and played 11 games there. It's pretty uncommon for players making that much money to mutually terminate a contract, but sometimes that's the only way they can get another chance in the league.

dgibb10 said:
That would be 300,000 players in the league each recieving 20$
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I'm not counting next season, where it's impossible to assume that the league would have $3.625M more salary with him in the league (or with him in the AHL or whatever). But yeah, I still underestimated by an order of magnitude, it's probably closer to $1000.
 
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theoptimist said:
Why doesn't Palat want it?
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Because we haven’t sent him to the AHL, man

guitarguyvic said:
Are we seriously having a three page discussion on what it means for a player and team to mutually agree on a contract termination after said player cleared waivers? This is like the simplest transaction and motive to understand…..
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It is, unless you want to twist something to say the exact opposite of what it implies because you cannot help but double down on an initial bad take fired from the hip
 
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theoptimist said:
Why doesn't Palat want it?
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Because Palat has an NMC that prevents him from being sent to the minors

MasterofGrond said:
Because we haven’t sent him to the AHL, man


It is, unless you want to twist something to say the exactly opposite of what it implies because you cannot help but double down on an initial bad take fired from the hip
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Also we can't send him to the minors, he has an NMC
 
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NJDevs26 said:
If he was waived, unclaimed and sent down to Utica he probably would…why do you conveniently leave out this part of the story?
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Saad has been there and done that. He doesn't have to report to anywhere he doesn't want to. This 'mutual termination' is what I'm curious about. Not his morality or willpower or whatever. He's definitely going to bounce back on his next team because it will be with a contender, renewed motivation etc. His current team is in a playoff push and he has two seasons remaining. He's leaving because things aren't working out. I called it quitting in previous posts.

I want to see what contract Saad signs next. Will it be a 1 or 2 year deal? If the Blues have been willing to trade this asset for some time now, how come they haven't? We have a 2-time stanley cup winner on our team and we signed him for 6X6. Winners have value. Palat is still here because he wants to be, and things are working out for him right now. I would be frustrated if Palat pulled what Saad just did, because you're essentially handcuffed to someone who is disgruntled. Can't put a 2-time cup winner on waivers, it's uncouth. Thus, this under the table trade we have brewing. Was there a 'future considerations' clause on the Holloway/Broberg deal?
 
Tatar with Bastian this season - 64% xG in 150 minutes. No idea why these guys get so much hate. Bastian apart from Tatar is miserable but that's likely because his other linemate is MacDermid in that case. Tatar and Bastian can absolutely play a capable 4th line game in the playoffs.
 
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Triumph said:
Tatar with Bastian this season - 64% xG in 150 minutes. No idea why these guys get so much hate. Bastian apart from Tatar is miserable but that's likely because his other linemate is MacDermid in that case. Tatar and Bastian can absolutely play a capable 4th line game in the playoffs.
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They became instant whipping boys when they weren't producing any actual offense in the first portion of the season. They've actually been playing pretty solid hockey along with Lazar the past couple of weeks it feels like. I know people get worked up about Tatar's offense drying up as he's gotten older, along with his playoff history, but there are far worse players you could have on your 4th line.
 
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Id take Saad. When healthy we have Hughes Hischier Haula Lazar Mercer as centers

Obviously another center helps but Saad also helps (if he has gas left in the tank)
 
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Better Call Sal said:
They became instant whipping boys when they weren't producing any actual offense in the first portion of the season. They've actually been playing pretty solid hockey along with Lazar the past couple of weeks it feels like. I know people get worked up about Tatar's offense drying up as he's gotten older, along with his playoff history, but there are far worse players you could have on your 4th line.
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Plus if we can put together a better 3rd line and everyone is healthy they would be playing much less, or used in way that was needed at certain times. As of now it, everyone is tired, your turn.
 
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NJDevs26 said:
I mean we could use ‘any’ kind of forward depth, not just center unless you want to keep rolling out the corpses of guys like Tatar, Bastian and MacDermid without any other options

And we pretty much can only afford dirt cheap anyway.
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I would assume Fitz adds a top 6/bottom 6 forward at the deadline to even things out where some of those guys won't play. The bottom 6 forward will probably be a center.
 
theoptimist said:
He sucks and quit on his team. That's what I'm getting at. He's no good here. You said you didn't think he was quitting, I think worse. This shows just how dumb the Blues are and the NHL for allowing these types of moves. There should be a cooling off period of 3 months or so for any contracts in season
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I’m genuinely confused what you’re arguing for and I’m very certain no GMs/NHL owners have a problem with mutual contract terminations.

They happen pretty often with minor league players who are unhappy in the AHL and typically want to go overseas to play. Most NHL players have to be bought out though because they want their guaranteed money.

Saad signed a 5 year/4.5m deal as UFA at 28 and fell off a cliff at 32. That happens and it’s why giving older middle six guys term can be dangerous.

Saad did them a massive favor by refusing to play in the AHL to make his last ~5m. They could only bury 1.15m of is 4.5m. 3.35m of dead cap space is objectively bad.

theoptimist said:
The Blues owner walks into your office and asks what assets you got in return? He reminds you that they've spent $15M on this player and committed another $9M to this player for the next two seasons. The owner reminds you that they're in a retool, NOT a rebuild. You have a win-now coach, in JM. What is your response? (lol)
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They spent 15m and got 19-26 goals a year from Saad, that’s why they signed him. He stopped scoring, and they have other forwards they want to put on scoring lines, so getting out of the 9m commitment is a big win.
 
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Just to continue to enforce the point that we have a good team here as we hit February. We're in the top third (even the top quarter) in the league in a lot of key categories.

Tied for 7th in the NHL in Points with 64
Tied for 10th in the NHL in Points Percentage with .604%.
Tied for 5th in the NHL in Regulation Wins with 26.
8th in the NHL in Reg/OT wins with 29.
10th in the NHL in GF with 164. (11th in GF per game)
5th in the NHL in GA with 133. (4th best in GA per game).
Tied for 5th in the NHL with a +31 goal differential.
2nd in PP%
5th in PK%

Our biggest struggle when diving deeper into things has been winning 1 goal games, but I believe it was pointed out that a lot of that has been the breaks in OT (or shootout presumably). We're 7-5 in regulation in 1 goal decisions, but we've lost 6 games in 3-on-3 or shootout. So even that statistic is skewed.
 
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Triumph said:
Tatar with Bastian this season - 64% xG in 150 minutes. No idea why these guys get so much hate. Bastian apart from Tatar is miserable but that's likely because his other linemate is MacDermid in that case. Tatar and Bastian can absolutely play a capable 4th line game in the playoffs.
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My beautiful defensive boy!
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Saad is voluntarily leaving nearly $7,000,000 on the table because playing in the NHL is more important to him than money. He agreed to bail the Blues out of their cap crisis and personally lose a HUGE amount of money to make it happen.

That contract is fully guaranteed and he could have easily said "f*** you, pay me my money." Instead said "the money isn't important, I just want to play in the NHL."

It has nothing to do with quitting on the team. STL quit on him, and instead of putting up a fight (which is his collectively-bargained for right as a player) he did them an enormous favor.
 
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theoptimist said:
Saad has been there and done that. He doesn't have to report to anywhere he doesn't want to. This 'mutual termination' is what I'm curious about. Not his morality or willpower or whatever. He's definitely going to bounce back on his next team because it will be with a contender, renewed motivation etc. His current team is in a playoff push and he has two seasons remaining. He's leaving because things aren't working out. I called it quitting in previous posts.

I want to see what contract Saad signs next. Will it be a 1 or 2 year deal? If the Blues have been willing to trade this asset for some time now, how come they haven't? We have a 2-time stanley cup winner on our team and we signed him for 6X6. Winners have value. Palat is still here because he wants to be, and things are working out for him right now. I would be frustrated if Palat pulled what Saad just did, because you're essentially handcuffed to someone who is disgruntled. Can't put a 2-time cup winner on waivers, it's uncouth. Thus, this under the table trade we have brewing. Was there a 'future considerations' clause on the Holloway/Broberg deal?
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I’m starting to get the impression that you don’t actually understand what transpired from start to finish, because your questions literally make no sense.
 
theoptimist said:
He sucks and quit on his team. That's what I'm getting at. He's no good here. You said you didn't think he was quitting, I think worse. This shows just how dumb the Blues are and the NHL for allowing these types of moves. There should be a cooling off period of 3 months or so for any contracts in season
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He didn't quit on his team.
 
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