League News: NHL Talk - (News n' Scores n' Stuff) | 2025-26 Free Agent Frenzy

[Threetrees]

A Vezina trophy and a Stanley Cup is a pretty much bucket list for any Goalie

He also had gotten a big life changing contract at that point. Probably lost his drive to continue to maintain NHL level of play.

 

[kicksavedave]

But also, folks seem to really not understand contract negotiations. When you sign a contract you AGREE to a thing. It's not "well sure we're saying X, but it'll end up being Y." NO. It's X. Cassidy agreed to these terms.

What wrong-doing? Wanting to hire a coach that is not working???? How is Edmonton doing literally anything wrong here?

Contracts are not some ironclad, black-and-white thing that take precedence over all else. Certainly not in a moral or ethical sense, and not in a legal sense either. There are clauses in contracts that are unenforceable all the time, there are clauses that parties insert knowing they'll be broken, parties go back to re-negotiate contracts all the time.

Take non-compete clauses, for example, which are not the exact same but kind of spiritually what Vegas and Cassidy are arguing about here. They still exist in all kinds of contracts, people sign contracts with them, and yet they are completely unenforceable or even illegal in most cases.

Anyways, I hope all you "it's in a contract he signed" people read through every EULA and Terms and Conditions very carefully before you do anything!

This (the bolded) is absolutely 100% correct, companies include non compete clauses in their standard contracts all the time, but they are illegal in many states and entirely unenforceable in those states, so people sign them all the time then go later work for a competitor all the time as well, without any recourse from the former employer. I've also seen sales compensations plans which have illegal clauses in them (per a particular state) which, after an employee ends their employment for whatever reason, they are entitled to much more compensation than the employer thinks they are, and in an ensuing law suit (which may become a class action even) the employer's illegal clauses get stricken and the employees get paid a bundle. Ask me how I know

However, a standard employment contract for a multi state employer which has clauses in it that aren't enforceable in some states, isn't functionally identical to a custom written coaching contract which will likely include some custom clauses that both sides do mutually agree to upon signature. I think the main difference between enforceable and unenforceable in these contracts is the term "negotiated at arms length" which means both sides mutually agree to the custom terms without duress, as opposed to a standard "take it or leave it" employment agreement which us average worker bees simply have to sign to go work for Spacely Sprockets or whoever. CEO's negotiate golden parachutes that we workers don't get, but they also agree to not compete in order to get those parachutes, and these would be legal in all 50 states. An NHL coach's contract would be much more like the CEO, than the standard boilerplate agreement us worker bees sign. Meaning Cassidy's non compete is most likely enforceable and legal, vs Joe Schmuckatelli leaving Microsoft to work for Google, despite what his Microsoft employment agreement says.

Bottom line is I'm pretty sure Cassidy has no recourse and Vegas may be dicks, but but they win a lot so its all fine and dandy