Monday, June 30, 2008

The Sympathy Contract?


Mathieu Roy (Livelihood Stats) will not have a lengthy term NHL career as an Edmonton Oiler.

Mathieu Roy has a one-way contract for the 2008-2009 NHL season at a 0.500M cap hit. He will be compensated this amount regardless of whether he's with the Oilers, or buried in the minors after clearing waivers.

Unless, of course, he is bought out before today's (Monday) 3 p.m. MDT NHL deadline.

The Edmonton Oilers presently boast a defensive crops of:

Sheldon Souray, Joni Pitkanen, Tom Gilbert, Denis Grebeshkov, Steve Staios, Lubomir Visnovsky, and Ladislav Smid.

That's 7. With Taylor Chorney, Theo Peckham, and Josaf Hrabral breathing heavily.

Given the fact he hasn't played enough games, Roy can be bought out for a mere 1/3 of his contract, effectively ~166,667, over double the length of the contract (2 years). This would effectively mean, a minute 83,333 cap hit over the next 2 years.

Is this a sympathy contract, with the Oilers wishing to stay true to their commitment? Or does Roy really figure in the Oilers plan of press-box defenseman?

2 comments:

Jonathan Willis said...

Things I love about the Oilersphere: the Oilers acquire a legit top-pairing defenseman, and we still have time to worry about the implications for Mathieu Roy. ;)

Backhand said...

With Pitz gone looks like Roy is our # 7 D man which I'm still not happy about. With us gaining experience on the blue line and giving up youth we have room to groom a dman in that #7 hole (Peckham) instead of wasting it on a guy who is at the his potential.