Raccoon Jesus
We were right there
kingsfan, I looked it up and one article says 300k a year difference, another says it was 100k difference, either way, both numbers are less than 6% of his actual salary..
And I have no issue whatsoever with athletes, or anyone for that matter getting as much as they possibly can. But don't go in front of the media and cry about how much you love a place or a team when you are leaving over such a small amount.
I think Smyth is one of those guys who is extremely protective of his image. The mullet, the old helmet etc. He played the role of the "good old western Canadian farm boy" to perfection, when in reality he was a massive slime ball liar on the level of Alexei Yashin.
But ya, getting back to Vinny, he could have collected an easy $10m (or whatever his actual salary was) from the Flyers and been a healthy scratch these last two seasons and then just retired and moved on with his life. The fact that he was willing to terminate his deal, and has now agreed to retire and give up $5m next season just so he can retire on his terms with a winning team is really telling, gained a ton of respect for this guy. You can tell he loves being here with the Kings and his teammates seem to love him.
Holy cow, that's a brilliant angle really.
And yeah, I give Vinnie a lot of props because even though he's the top earning player EVER leaving any money on the table and a couple more years of hockey JUST for 40 more games + a shot at the cup tells me everything I would need to know about his desire. Even if he came here and stunk up the joint, just going hard makes him a 4th liner.