Proposal: Mutual termination of Carey Price's contract

[Frank Drebin]

This idea was stolen from one of the members on the Habs board.

After this season, Price will have collected 52.75M in the first 4 years of his 8 year, 84m deal. His real salary over the next 4 years is 31.25m. (7.8 per year)

Carey Price

Looking at the direction of the Montreal Canadiens, the chance for another cup before his career is done, is basically nil.

I do believe there would be interest around the league in Price as a UFA in the range of 5-6m/4 years. Of course there would be risk involved, but Price has shown as recently as last spring he's not only capable of backing a Stanley Cup team, but he can still be one of the best players in the league, albeit for short periods of time.

So this is the proposal:

Price and the Montreal Canadiens mutually part ways. The contract is ripped up. Habs are relieved of his atrocious cap hit during a rebuild and Price is given the choice to go to whatever team he wants for his final 4 seasons. Price loses some real salary in a sacrifice to go to a winning team and out of Montreal.

A suitor in need of a goalie, signs Price to a 4 year contract for say 5.5m per year.

The suitor team gets an elite playoff goalie at a fair cap hit.
Price gets out of Montreal, a chance to win, at the cost of 9m in career earnings. (~125m career earnings vs 135m)
Montreal kickstarts their rebuild.

Could you see such a thing happening? Am I offbase in thinking there would be interest in Carey Price if the only asset given up was 5.5m or 6.0m in cap hit?

Is such a thing allowed under the current CBA?

Click to read more...

 

[stl76]

This is absurd on it's face and not really worth further comment.

 

[Mrfenn92]

Why would Carey price give up the guaranteed money owed to him?

 

[MMC]

What reason do you have for believing Price would have any interest in this?

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

question: would you rip up a multi-million dollar contract with the possibility to get ... .... another multi-million dollar contract ?

i mean, i like taking the mystery box over a boat any day.

the mystery box may even be a boat !

 

[nhlfan9191]

What reason do you have for believing Price would have any interest in this?

The OP strongly dislikes Price given his comments on the Habs board. That’s his only reasoning.

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

multi-million$ of ca$h money>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Being on a winning team.

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

Is such a thing allowed under the current CBA?

I can't see how.

 

[Frank Drebin]

What reason do you have for believing Price would have any interest in this?

The chance to win rather than rotting in Montreal, at the cost of about 1.5 years of career earnings

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

It's not allowed under the cap.

 

[Frank Drebin]

I can't see how.

Didn't something similar happen with Mike richards? It wasn't mutual, but it was a terminated contract

 

[Maurice of Orange]

It's not allowed under the cap.

See Zach Bogosian and Nikita Gusev just to name a few...

 

[Box Score Watcher]

Didn't something similar happen with Mike richards? It wasn't mutual, but it was a terminated contract

Luongo too?

 

[Chayos]

Is seems pretty shady to me and why does Price do this?

If you are rebuilding eating some cap to maximize assets should be ok. Eat 40%-50% and take back short term cap and get a nice little package of futures. There are a lot of naysayers on here who seemed to forget last years payoff run for some reason. He isn't suddenly terrible and for some reason people seem to be using MTL points standing against him when he hasn't played a game yet.

Price at $5.25-6.5 for the next 4 years is fine and worth something.

 

[DFF]

If the Habs want to get rid of price, they have to pay.

simple as that

 

[nhlfan9191]

Dude you're such a jock sniffer it's not even funny. I would love to see price at 5.5m on the oilers

You’re asking a guy to terminate the contract he worked his entire career to get. He can play on the Oilers for that number with his current contract, it’s just going to cost our team. Which it should. We’re the ones who agreed to sign him at the price we did. That’s how sports works. He doesn’t owe our team anything by walking away from millions of dollars. What you’re suggesting is foolish.

 

[soothsayer]

Price doing Montreal a $30M favor here lol.

 

[XX]

The player is taking on all the risk when realistically the Habs should just retain 50% and trade him.

 

[Lolonegoal]

question: would you rip up a multi-million dollar contract with the possibility to get ... .... another multi-million dollar contract ?

i mean, i like taking the mystery box over a boat any day.

the mystery box may even be a boat !

Even without terminating your contract theres no guarantee signing with a currently succesful team means future cup chances. Karlsson signed with the cup contending sharks and they've been terrible since. Tavares left the bleak islanders for the hopeful maple leafs, and compare they amount of playoff series won between the two. You could of said all these thing last year and then Montreal made the finals. Theres no guarantee how good a team will be, but a contract does guarantee how much money you'll get.

 

[George Binks]

Beat bet is to trade him with retention cuz of all the guaranteed money. Price is a player remember not a fan so he is gonna do what’s best for his family not the franchise

 

[Frank Drebin]

The player is taking on all the risk when realistically the Habs should just retain 50% and trade him.

Well obviously the contract termination would be under the condition that there is a suitor team willing to sign price for 4 years at a fair salary.

 

[Frank Drebin]

You’re asking a guy to terminate the contract he worked his entire career to get. He can play on the Oilers for that number with his current contract, it’s just going to cost our team. Which it should. We’re the ones who agreed to sign him at the price we did. That’s how sports works. He doesn’t owe our team anything by walking away from millions of dollars. What you’re suggesting is foolish.

It would be best for his legacy to play his final 4 years somewhere else than Montreal with a chance to win. Even if he doesn't win a cup, at least he had a chance.

The current structure of his cap hit makes moving him impossible. We're not going to eat 5m cap, nor is a team going to pay the price we would be asking. This is the only way he's going to sniff a chance at the cup before he retires.

If the 10m is that important, then I guess he can rot out his final years with a rebuilding team.

 

[orby]

Well obviously the contract termination would be under the condition that there is a suitor team willing to sign price for 4 years at a fair salary.

Why would Price want "a fair salary" instead of the salary he's already owed? What hypothetical team is going to sign him to this "fair" deal? What is actually fair is for the Habs to keep paying Price the salary he was promised when he signed his contract, trade him (likely with significant salary retention) or buy him out. The notion that he would ask for the contract to be terminated instead is not reasonable.

 

[ole ole]

You’re asking a guy to terminate the contract he worked his entire career to get. He can play on the Oilers for that number with his current contract, it’s just going to cost our team. Which it should. We’re the ones who agreed to sign him at the price we did. That’s how sports works. He doesn’t owe our team anything by walking away from millions of dollars. What you’re suggesting is foolish.

Some players have walked away from [ more guaranteed money ] for different reasons.
Karia, Hull was willing to fogo a huge part of his salary to keep Oats and himself together.
If you believe to have made enough money to take a huge pay cut for a chance of winning the cup,[ The thing you devoted your whole life for ] than you do it.

 

[Qwijibo]

It's not allowed under the cap.

It actually is.