Today's casualty of the new salary-capped NHL is Wade Flaherty.
Flaherty, a relatively seasoned NHL veteran who took over the starter's job from Alex Auld last season in Manitoba, is stuck there for what looks to be the long haul. Why? Because he refused to renegotiate his contract to below $75000/yr, he cannot be called up and sent back down without being exposed to waivers. Because of this, the Canucks have been forced to use Rob McVicar as their backup during the oodles of time Cloutier has been injured. Wade Flaherty, meanwhile, is in Manitoba, aging.
Maxime Ouellet has now essentially replaced him on the depth chart so the Canucks no longer have to risk calling him up, killing whatever hopes he might have had of being claimed on waivers by another team. Now that Cloutier is out for the season, you better believe the Canucks and Flaherty would have been better off had he taken that pay cut.
Do we call it ego or principle that led Wade Flaherty to what has turned out to be such a ridiculously bad decision on his part? To his credit, I suppose I'd say principle, since I probably wouldn't like the idea of taking a 40% pay cut myself. However, it's funnier all around if we just say it was ego.
Good job, Flaherty. Hope Christmas in Manitoba is cold and unforgiving.
Current Music: Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
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2 comments:
Remember those soft goals that Ouellet gave up in the semi finals of the world jr's a couple years ago? The same goals that effectively killed Canada's gold medal hopes?
I personally can't wait till Auld gets injured right before the playoffs thus making Oullet the starting goalie.
Ed, nobody likes you.
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