Tag Archives: Alexei Yashin

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: I Want A Contract With The Islanders pt.2

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Alexei Yashin was a stud for the Ottawa Senators on the ice. Off the ice, he would complain about contracts until the cows came home. He refused to play in the 95-96 season until he was made the highest paid player on the team. In 1998, he was to donate a million dollars to the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, however the NAC learned that a condition of the donation would be to pay Yashin’s parents $425,000, they balked at the idea, and Yashin cancelled the donation.

There would be more contract disputes to come, with Yashin refusing to honor the last year of his contract before the 1999-00 season due to demanding a raise and the Senators declining, he then demanded a trade. Ottawa responded by suspending him for the 99-00 season instead. Yashin, who was meant to be a free agent after the season, was refused free agent status by an NHL Arbitrator, and instead had to play out the final year of his contract in the 2000-01 season. Which lead the Ottawa Senators to trade Yashin at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, to the New York Islanders. Which brought about one of hockey’s great debates. Which was worse? The contract the Islanders gave Yashin, or the players they traded in order to get Yashin.

New York traded forward Bill Muckalt, defenseman Zdeno Chara, and the second overall pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, which just happened to be Jason Spezza. The Islanders hoped that Yashin would provide the spark they needed, after picking up 94 and 88 points respectively, in the last two years he played.
Muckalt only spent one season in Ottawa, and didnt really come to much. Chara has become one of the most feared defensemen, not just for the Boston Bruins, but in the National Hockey League, and Spezza has become the forward centerpiece in Ottawa and looks to be a future captain.

But what about Yashin? He is the focal point of this blog after all. Well, the Islanders had so much faith in the Russian, that they signed him to a 10 year, 87.5 million dollar contract. Most found that an untradeable contract, but it was clear that in their eyes, Yashin was an Islander for the rest of his career. In his first year, Yashin helped the Islanders make the playoffs, but they never got past the first round during his tenure there, and after the first year, his production declined.

Even after they retooled the roster around Yashin for the 2005-06 season, it didnt help, as the Islanders bought out his contract at the end of the 2006-07 season, leaving them with a cap hit of just over $2.2mil until 2015. Yashin is currently the eighth highest cap hit for forwards on the Islanders roster, even though he reitred from hockey in 2012. Yashin is a prime example of gambling gone horribly, horribly wrong. If the Islanders hadn’t of made the deal, then chances are they would still have Zdeno Chara and Jason Spezza in their lineup, and who knows where they’d be now. Maybe where they expected to be with Yashin.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: I Want A Contract With The Islanders pt.1

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Ah, the Islanders. They currently have the most room in the salary cap, according to CapGeek.com, which is surprising, considering the Islanders have probably the two worst contracts in the history of hockey. One of which ended only recently because of a compliance buyout, and the other is for someone who hasn’t played since 2007. They are, of course, Rick DiPietro and Alexei Yashin.

DiPietro was drafted first overall by the New York Islanders in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, three years after the Islanders drafted Roberto Luongo. Considered to be the real future of the franchise, Luongo was traded to the Florida Panthers the same day DiPietro was drafted, so the pressure was on even before he hit the ice. After just 3 wins out of 20 in his first season, he never played again in the NHL until the 2002-03 season (which was only 11 games, one of which was a playoff shutout), before gaining the starting role the following season.

After four season of not the greatest goaltending, and 2 wins from 9 in playoffs, DiPietro was signed to a 15-year, $67.5 million contract. A week before his 26th birthday, the Islanders actually wanted to make the signing a year earlier, but the NHL discouraged the idea. The NHL knew that giving him a 15 year contract would be absolutely stupid, given the contract they gave Alexei Yashin in 2001 (I’ll get to it, don’t worry), but the Islanders gave him the contract anyway.

After one win from four in the first year of his 15-year deal, his last playoff appearance, 2007 also saw the decline of DiPietro, as injuries began to take their toll, and since 2008, has only played in 50 games for the Islanders, for just 14 wins. The misery finally ended, when his contract was bought out on July 1, 2013. However, even though it doesn’t affect the salary cap, DiPietro will still be paid $1.5 million until 2029. He will be 48.

If you think that the Islanders screwed that one up, the next part will prove that they didn’t learn from their mistakes.

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