On September 19th of 2006, I was a little shocked to hear that the New York Islanders signed their goalie, Rick DiPietro, to a 15-year deal that would pay him $67.5 million over the duration of the contract. It made DiPietro the 8th highest paid goalie at the time, and locked him up in New York for the rest of his career. People saying that it was a weird deal considering that DiPietro is average at best. Now, it seems like the Islanders really may be rethinking the move.
DiPietro is scheduled to have season-ending hip surgery for the second year in a row. Last year, it was the left hip. This year, the right. That makes the first two seasons of his whopping contract shortened due to injury. The important point that the recent ESPN article left out is that the contract is guaranteed and if DiPietro has to retire because of an injury, he will be paid in full. If he retires for any other reason, the remaining money left on the contract will be forfeited. At this point, it looks like DiPietro is an injury basket case and may cost the Islanders a lot of money if his career is short lived.
One Comment
If he retires due to injury insurance pays for it, so it’s net?et no worries for the isles.
The question is how bad a cap hit they take if and when he retires. I forget the structure, but IIRC the remainder accelerates for half the life of the remainder of the contract.
That would mean a $6mm hit or so, then going down to $3mm after a while.
For better info go to James Mirtle’s blog and look for salary cap tags