Nobody is touching him at 6m until he’s proven to be clean. That risk is just way too high and cap space at too much of a premium.
Do you know how hard it is to win a Stanley Cup when your power forward prefers nose whiskey to Stanley Cups?
You really need to start posting your sources because I am not even sure which substances is Nukie consuming.
Slightly worse lol. What do you think his trade value is? If you want a similar situation, go read up on what happened with Evander Kane and the end of his time with the Sharks. If the Avs really want to get rid of Nuke then burying him in the minors and taking that cap hit hoping that breaks him and makes him want to leave for a settlement is the best outcome.
Just like Sakic said he'll give Nichushkin another chance eh
Nuke has an NMC for 24-25. There is no burying him in the AHL for the entirety of next year.
You can't have it both ways. He can't be an unreplaceable elite player, but also not be that in the eyes of other teams. If anything it's the opposite: The ONLY reason the Avs even want to get rid of him is that he made the same mistake twice and they can't risk it happening thrice.
3x in 13 months, and plenty of time undocumented publicly prior to that. If a player cannot be counted on to be around, then you simply have to replace them.
The risk is minimal even for his current contract. If he gets busted again and enters 4th stage, I think they'll easily be able to get rid of that contract.
Why the f*** did they offer him an 8 year contract if they knew? Blinded by the cup win?
Why would many teams take that risk? Tie up 6+M on a guy who has proven in B2B playoff runs now he can't be counted on? So you pencil him in for your regular season but have no clue if he makes it through playoffs as a contender?
1st liners don't grow on trees. Top contenders already have a strong roster, they might not need him, but what about shit teams like the Wild that need the extra push to become contenders?
Here's an interesting question, because I agree that no team is going to take him on at his full AAV.
First line wingers are easy to obtain, especially if you're willing to put 30M on the table. Don't need to go with the guy with severe issues.
Teams are naturally risk averse. No team wants a now public drug addict who has gotten busted three times in twelve months on their roster for 6M. Which GM do you think can convince his owner of that move to pony up the cash and pay this guy?
They knew what kind of a person he was when they signed him to that contract. Then he fked up and they gave him a second chance. Then he fked up and they give him a third chance. Then he fked up again. The Avs sure thought he was worth the risk. And they might still do and he just comes back when his suspension ends. It's not what I would want, but I'm not the GM. I think it's just specifically bad for the Avs because his bad history is with us. That's why you see "change of scenery" trades all the time. Is it that much different from Duchene sulking here?
and commit to him for 6 more years.
Except they are only committing to the 6 years if he stays clean. If he f***s up they're gonna get out of it.
No guarantee and a huge pain in the ass to terminate the contract and a multiple year cap penalty if you succeed.
These are our guesses only. You're right there's no guarantee that you can get rid of the contract, but there's also no guarantee that you can't get rid of the contract, or that you would have to pay multiple year cap penalties to get rid of that contract.
Because up until 13 months ago, it was realistically unknown or at least, unimportant to the league, and it was not affecting his on-ice play/availability.
But why take that chance? Why allocate funds and a prominent role to a guy like that?
That's your guess at it. I disagree. The only thing we really know for certain is that there was one team that did want to build a roster with him, and that is the Avalanche. They signed him to that contract and probably knew already what type of a guy he was outside the ice. Do you think they looked to trade him last summer after the first incident? I doubt it, personally. Or are you saying that he already had no value back then?
