Seravalli: Vegas looking to terminate Lehner deal after he failed to report for physical

[Foppberg]

If Chicago could make Hossa's allergy to hockey equipment stick, I think Vegas can can handle Lehner. If his back is good enough to suit up, his mental health clearly isn't...

Except the Hossa one was legit.

 

[HBK27]

Kovalchuk contact, actually was in the violation of the CBA and the team was punished for it. That HAS NOTHING to do with this situation...

Lehner has a lot of issues he's dealing with his own health and i don't think the union was gonna allow the team to outright terminate the contract, league and union both know why he didn't report. So they settled the issue.

What rule in the CBA did that contract violate?

Spoiler Alert - Not a single one.

Fact is the NHLPA/NHL completely dropped the ball in their rushed CBA negotiations that they didn't identify the loophole, thus the whole "violated the spirit of the CBA" crap excuse Bettman gave. Regardless, any contract is still subjected to league approval and they rejected that contract anyway. That should've been the end of it right there, but nope - they decided to send a message for their own failure in identifying this loophole by further punishing the Devils with a fine and loss of draft picks.

It has nothing directly to do with this situation other than to show the league could dole out punishment with no actual rhyme or reason if they wanted to under the extremely ambiguous "spirit of the CBA" framework if they wanted in this situation.

 

[Static]

I wish I could roll my eyes harder.

 

[JKG33]

What’s more reasonable to assume, that Vegas is paying Lehner millions of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts or that their case for termination isn’t as open and shut as people are implying here?

Money that a club pays a player should count against the cap seems like a really straightforward framework that should be easy for everyone to agree on. I guess not.

I would bet Lehner is threatening to claim mental health problems if Vegas rightfully terminates his contract. The media shit storm the bleeding hearts would cause over something like that ain't worth it for the NHL & Vegas. Much easier to pay him the money to stfu and gtfo

 

[Moose Head]

Habs need to get Gallagher to nudge, nudge, wink, wink to not report to his physical next time it comes up. Price too.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Kovalchuk contact, actually was in the violation of the CBA and the team was punished for it. That HAS NOTHING to do with this situation...

Lehner has a lot of issues he's dealing with his own health and i don't think the union was gonna allow the team to outright terminate the contract, league and union both know why he didn't report. So they settled the issue.

No Devils fan is arguing that contract was legal, we know the Devils cheated the contract not once but twice. The argument is that a team like Chicago signed Marian Hossa to an equally stupid contract and so did Vancouver with Luongo and neither team got docked of anything of any significance like NJ did. If you punish the Devils then punish those teams as well, punishing just the Devils in that scenario is nonsensical bullshit and it doesn't help when a Devils fan sees this shit happening with Lehner with a team that's gotten every break in the book to field a competitive team in its short history

 

[Shocker]

Next seasons camp is surprisingly gonna have a lot of veterans with terrible contracts suddenly not report.

 

[Treb]

So can players just not show up for the physicals and the nhl will just void contracts?

Seems rather convenient. I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a common circumvention with some back room dealings to compensate.

That would be CBA circumvention.

 

[TheBeard]

Habs need to get Gallagher to nudge, nudge, wink, wink to not report to his physical next time it comes up. Price too.

He's got real mental health issues if he refused to accept he's going bald.

 

[Spawn]

So the precedent is now set that any player who is LTIRetired just shouldn’t show up to camp to fail their physical.

Their contract gets voided, they got all their money, and the team doesn’t need to deal with the headache of operating all season in LTIR and not accruing any cap throughout the season.

 

[MMC]

And people get push back on when small market fans bitch/complain about the league enforcing rules on them that don't apply to small market teams. If a team like the Devils, Sens or Sabres do this, they're getting told to f*** off and deal with it.

Is there any actual basis for this or do fans just want to feel like their team is a victim?

 

[Kalopsia]

So the precedent is now set that any player who is LTIRetired just shouldn’t show up to camp to fail their physical.

Their contract gets voided, they got all their money, and the team doesn’t need to deal with the headache of operating all season in LTIR and not accruing any cap throughout the season.

Hell, how about a healthy player who's just under-performing and the team wants to buy them out? In a typical buyout, the team gets stuck with part of the cap hit and the player forfeits some of their remaining salary. In the Lehner situation, the team gets rid of the cap hit and it sounds like Lehner keeps his full salary, so they both come out better off than in a normal buyout. Why wouldn't every team just tell players they plan to buyout to do something to violate their contract with the assurance that they'll come to a settlement where they still get their money? Any team with a buyout on their books should be furious right now.

 

[JKG33]

The amount of people who don't understand unique situations and just wanna cry about Vegas never ceases to amaze me

 

[HBK27]

No Devils fan is arguing that contract was legal, we know the Devils cheated the contract not once but twice. The argument is that a team like Chicago signed Marian Hossa to an equally stupid contract and so did Vancouver with Luongo and neither team got docked of anything of any significance like NJ did. If you punish the Devils then punish those teams as well, punishing just the Devils in that scenario is nonsensical bullshit and it doesn't help when a Devils fan sees this shit happening with Lehner with a team that's gotten every break in the book to field a competitive team in its short history

Actually, I am a Devils fan and I am most certainly arguing that the Kovalchuk contract was legal based on the CBA at the time. There was nothing within the CBA that prevented those types of contracts. It was something that should've been anticipated by the league and/or the NHLPA during CBA negotiations. But, they missed it and Lou and other GM's tried to take advantage of a loophole.

That's not to say that I think the league should've allowed it. I get why they rejected the deal as it was clear that Kovalchuk would never finish the deal. However, the proper way to have handled it would've been to re-open the CBA with the NHLPA once the league realized they screwed up and put updated wording in there to stop the ridiculously long-term contracts that players had no intention of completing versus punishing teams such as NJ (and later others with the recapture penalties) when they did not actually break any rules on the books at the time.

 

[Phrasing]

How’s this different from other LTIR players who couldn’t show up for physicals as well?

 

[HBK27]

The amount of people who don't understand unique situations and just wanna cry about Vegas never ceases to amaze me

What makes this situation so unique that another team/player wouldn't try something similar down the road?

 

[JKG33]

What makes this situation so unique that another team/player wouldn't try something similar down the road?

I find it hard to believe another player goes off the deep end with a snake farm, and gains an insane amount of weight while still under contract

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Actually, I am a Devils fan and I am most certainly arguing that the Kovalchuk contract was legal based on the CBA at the time. There was nothing within the CBA that prevented those types of contracts. It was something that should've been anticipated by the league and/or the NHLPA during CBA negotiations. But, they missed it and Lou and other GM's tried to take advantage of a loophole.

That's not to say that I think the league should've allowed it. I get why they rejected the deal as it was clear that Kovalchuk would never finish the deal. However, the proper way to have handled it would've been to re-open the CBA with the NHLPA once the league realized they screwed up and put updated wording in there to stop the ridiculously long-term contracts that players had no intention of completing versus punishing teams such as NJ (and later others with the recapture penalties) when they did not actually break any rules on the books at the time.

Legal in the sense of what was going on, I agree, but as Devils fans we knew Kovy was never finishing that and it was done to lower the cap hit. But yes I agree, the league knew they had an issue get out of hand and punished the smallest market team they could as is the case with everything they f***ing do apparently.

 

[Kalopsia]

I find it hard to believe another player goes off the deep end with a snake farm, and gains an insane amount of weight while still under contract

Yes, it's a unique situation, but the key question is - what part of that unique situation entitles the Knights to essentially a free compliance buyout and Lehner to have his contract terminated but still get paid in full? Why isn't this either a typical contract termination or Lehner going to LTIRetirement?

 

[HBK27]

I find it hard to believe another player goes off the deep end with a snake farm, and gains an insane amount of weight while still under contract

Those are irrelevant details...

Again, what makes this situation unique in which we can expect that some other player won't show up for his physical for whatever reason and that the team won't be able to just wipe his cap hit off the books while paying him out the remainder of his contract?

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

The amount of people who don't understand unique situations and just wanna cry about Vegas never ceases to amaze me

Aren't you the same guy who said that Askarov would stay in Nashville after Saros re-upped in the Saros extension thread? It would be nice to not get lectured by someone with that level of hockey knowledge to the entire site.

 

[GCK]

Pandora’s box is open


But only for Vegas.

 

[Lunatik]

What rule in the CBA did that contract violate?

Any contract deemed to me trying to circumvent the cap can be deemed illegal. They were penalized for the first contract they tried to submit to the league which was 17 years/102m and was denied by the NHL... they then signed the 15 year/100m that the league approved.

 

[josra33]

How’s this different from other LTIR players who couldn’t show up for physicals as well?

Everyone else shows up, shows they can’t play and leaves. It’s documented they can’t play year in and year out. If they want to get paid, they show up.

 

[JKG33]

Yes, it's a unique situation, but the key question is - what part of that unique situation entitles the Knights to essentially a free compliance buyout and Lehner to have his contract terminated but still get paid in full? Why isn't this either a typical contract termination or Lehner going to LTIRetirement?

I addressed it in an earlier post. The NHL and Vegas aren't trying to pick a fight with a guy who's gunna cry mental health the first chance he gets

Those are irrelevant details...

Again, what makes this situation unique in which we can expect that some other player won't show up for his physical for whatever reason and that the team won't be able to just wipe his cap hit off the books while paying him out the remainder of his contract?

See above