New York Islanders...

[Jakub]

Has anyone been following this farce?

I feel so bad for anyone who considers himself an Islander fan.

[Mark Crump]

The last I heard, everyone was either fired or quit in protest.

What else has changed?

[Troy S Goodfellow]

A 15 year contract is silly.

A 15 year contract for a goaltender is insane.

Troy

[dannimal]

This has got to be some kind of cap-game as a result of the new CBA. Something like the last 10 years aren't guaranteed, and don't count against the cap if he's cut or whatever.

Like how NFL teams sign players to 8-year deals when it's clear they'll be "forced" to re-work them to "create" cap space after 3 years (or retire, or be cut).

[Jakub]

This has got to be some kind of cap-game as a result of the new CBA. Something like the last 10 years aren't guaranteed, and don't count against the cap if he's cut or whatever.

Like how NFL teams sign players to 8-year deals when it's clear they'll be "forced" to re-work them to "create" cap space after 3 years (or retire, or be cut).
NHL contracts are guaranteed. The NHL has a hard cap like football and guaranteed contracts like basketball. Makes this deal even dumber than it would be in any other sport. As long as he does what the club tells him to do, DiPietro gets his money.

DiPietro isn't even that good. Maybe he will be great, but he may end up being a $67m bench warmer. He can't be traded with his current contract. And the insane thing is that the Isles gave up the rights to Luongo and their very early 1st-round pick to draft him.

[dannimal]

Jesus. The Islanders just got Tranqed.

[Jakub]

Jesus. The Islanders just got Tranqed.
Actually, it's more like if the moderator fucked the Islanders, because this is guaranteed to be owner Charles Wang's idea.

He was also the one who wanted to hire a sumo wrestler as a goaltender.

[walTer]

Most amazingly stupid thing ever? Well not for DiPietro.

Makes me feel better about being a Kings fan.

[MarchHare]

Actually, it's more like if the moderator fucked the Islanders, because this is guaranteed to be owner Charles Wang's idea.


More likely it's "Mad" Mike Milbury up to his old shenanigans, pulling the strings of puppet GM Garth Snow.

Fuck the Islanders are a mess. I feel really bad for their fans to be so screwed over by management like this. Makes me more and more glad we've got Darryl Sutter here in Calgary, and an ownership group smart enough to focus only on the business side of things and stay out of hockey operations.

[Squirrel Killer]

Actually, it's more like if the moderator fucked the Islanders, because this is guaranteed to be owner Charles Wang's idea.

He was also the one who wanted to hire a sumo wrestler as a goaltender.
That's like that SNL episode right after Gretsky went to the Kings and all the celebrities told him that the team should just get a guy with a big sheet of plywood to play goalie.

[Shadarr]

He can't be traded with his current contract. And the insane thing is that the Isles gave up the rights to Luongo and their very early 1st-round pick to draft him.
Not entirely true. This deal is entirely predicated around him becoming a star goalie. If he does that, it's a bargain. Even if he just becomes a top-15 starter in the league, it's a perfectly servicable contract. $4.5 million a year isn't that much for a quality goalie. So, if he is in fact a quality goalie, the contract won't prevent him from being traded.

The issue is, if he isn't a quality goalie, then no one will trade for a backup making $4.5 million a season. Heck, nobody is trading for JS Giguere, who is a proven star, because they don't need to pick up that kind of salary for a goalie. There's a glutt right now. So in that case, they're stuck with a $67 million contract for a backup. They can, under NHL rules, buy him out for 2/3 of the remaining contract. Does Wang have enough money to pay $40 million to erase a mistake?

The other issue is, the only way this deal works out well for the Islanders is if DiPiettro becomes a star goalie worth more than $4.5 million a season. In that case, they've got a bargain. However, if that happens, you can pretty much guarantee that DiPiettro will hold out and demand a renegotiation. He'd be stupid not to. If guys like Luongo and Kiprisof are making $7 or 8 million (assuming the cap and thus salaries go up over the next five-ten years) and he's making $4.5 and is in that class, of course he's going to hold out.

What you have in Long Island is an owner who thinks he's smarter than everyone else and doesn't understand the reasoning behind the conventional wisdom. He thinks that the reason nobody else has done something like this is that nobody's thought of it, and not because they've thought it through and it isn't worth it.