Contract Termination: [WSH] Capitals terminate contract of Brendan Leipsic

[StephenPeat]

wish they had just paid him out after sending him home... I cant possibly support someone being fired for freedom of speech issues.

if I know him im advising him to take this to court now... its a fight that needs to be fought.

hate if he becomes a poster child for freedom of speech since he seems to be a total douchbag… but if he gets fired for some drug talk and making fun of peoples appearance or whatever... then god help the rest of us.

hope to hell no player I ever care about does anything remotely close to this... I never cared about this guy at all. dont care about him now either. but I do care about freedom of speech

Flaunting the Leagues Substance Abuse policy in a publicly-accessible forum (no matter how secure it is intended) will surely nullify any justification by 1st Amendment Right. This isn’t an assault on Freedom-of-Speech it’s a blatant Breach of Contract. Leipsic and his counsel would both get to choke on their own words. No Judge anywhere in any free society is going to touch the ethereal speech issues, they’ll settle for the simpler expressed and explicit legal ones.

 

[dracom]

wish they had just paid him out after sending him home... I cant possibly support someone being fired for freedom of speech issues.

if I know him im advising him to take this to court now... its a fight that needs to be fought.

hate if he becomes a poster child for freedom of speech since he seems to be a total douchbag… but if he gets fired for some drug talk and making fun of peoples appearance or whatever... then god help the rest of us.

hope to hell no player I ever care about does anything remotely close to this... I never cared about this guy at all. dont care about him now either. but I do care about freedom of speech

[MOD] The Caps are in their right to end a contract for any reason they deem necessary; he can say whatever shitty thing he wants, but that doesn't mean he's free from the consequences and guess what? He's being punished for he horrible and offensive language by his contract being terminated; there is absolute zero grounds for him to go to court. Once again, people confusing freedom of speech with not having to face consequences for their shitty speech.

 

[bigdog16]

The Caps are in their right to end a contract for any reason they deem necessary; he can say whatever shitty thing he wants, but that doesn't mean he's free from the consequences and guess what? He's being punished for he horrible and offensive language by his contract being terminated; there is absolute zero grounds for him to go to court. Once again, people confusing freedom of speech with not having to face consequences for their shitty speech.

lets be real, the Caps terminated the contract because they were scared/didnt want to deal with the backlash if they didnt. Not because they agree with the situation

 

[dracom]

I mean am I the only one that thinks the fact that private conversation being stolen and released to destroy someone is actually worse than the content of the conversations themselves?

it's always hilarious when people use the words "destroy someone" in cases like this. How is him losing out on an NHL contract destroying him? Oh no, he may have to get a regular job now?! how awful... Or he'll probably just go to Russia if he wants to keep playing and getting paid, how devastating!

Sucks his private messages got leaked, but he said terrible things and now he's facing the consequences.

 

[dracom]

lets be real, the Caps terminated the contract because they were scared/didnt want to deal with the backlash if they didnt. Not because they agree with the situation

that's fine, doesn't change the fact that his "freedom of speech" isn't being stepped on.

 

[StephenPeat]

I mean am I the only one that thinks the fact that private conversation being stolen and released to destroy someone is actually worse than the content of the conversations themselves?

Nothing you’ve said here alleviates the obvious; BOTH can be wrong, stupid, potentially illegal, reason for professional termination, and ultimately equivalent. In this case we only know one perpetrator, shame really but it’ll have to do.

 

[Beville]

Do you know what's kinda sad? If Leipsic was an actually good NHL player, he would have gotten a slap on the wrist and had to take PR courses, like Seguin did when he tweeted out "nothing but steers and queers in Texas" after being traded to Dallas.

Which is almost a shame because his CHL numbers were actually quite good...

but alas, he’s sucks in the show and he’s an absolute chump... with pretty much the entire league having him blacklisted.

C u l8r!

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

It is not willy-nilly nor is there much doubt in the legality.
There are morality clauses in NHL contracts that cover things like this.

If there was not a morality clause and the team terminated the contract because they disagreed with his morals, Leipsic, and by extension your arguments/concerns would have a clearer path to counteraction, but it's explicitly written in, and Leipsic knows that and signed to it when he signed his contract. The League even approved it too; you can't just send any contract to termination, which means it must have been vetted against some by-laws (or it was mutually agreed upon, in which case all of this would be moot anyway).
The NHLPA may file a grievance internally, just for due process, but I doubt if there are any external litigations it will be about the termination.

Additionally, there is not real reason why the team would have to say consistent, as it were (other than court of public opinion). It is up to a team when they want to invoke such clauses.


Lastly, in terms of honouring the contract, Leipsic had no more contract left. He was an impending RFA and the last pay cheque had already been resolved so there was no money left owing either (if plays does resume, admittedly, he could have in theory still played, though, yes).

If Washington, then, had made their decision to part from already and not re-sign him, they then really had 3 choices:
1) terminate him now (either with the player's agreement or invoking a morality clause)
2) not entering club-elected arbitration or offering a qualifying offer, thus letting him become an unrestricted free agent mid-June (dates are a little subject to what happens with the draft)
3) offer him a qualifying offer (at the risk him accepting the offer or electing for player-elected arbitration and being stuck with him) and retain his rights but not sign him, effectively holding him hostage from the NHL and any League with a transfer agreement


Option 3) is just bad for many reasons.
Option 2), it might be the path of least resistance, but it just prolongs the process and makes the Capitals look non-committal in the court of public opinion by not just sitting on it
Option 1) is clear, direct, legal, and if grieved they can easily point to options 2&3 and claim they were actually doing him a favour by not holding him for longer, allowing him to begin his own process of reconciliation and finding new work

in the history of morality clauses theres been many many many many lawsuits fought in the court system. something they go one way... sometimes the other.

could this be a slam dunk win for Washington? perhaps... but what do they gain? he was getting one more paycheck. they could have sent him home... paid him... simply opted to not bring him back... go away quietly

instead they grand stand.

now as I said earlier... what if dipshit has had numerous chats in the past with other players? suddenly he goes to court. he plays the other chats. he asks why was he fired and all these other players werent? what if some of these other players are very good superstar players? suddenly theres a discrimination law suit with huge penalties just waiting to happen

its just incredibly dumb to shoot from the hip on this issue with NOTHING to gain other than bending over for the PC crowd... at the risk of a massive exposure if there does exist other chats that may just come to light now.

the law isnt about who has the high ground morally... the law is about a lot of legal crap. theres a lot of very naïve people posting in this thread. I personally dont know what ticking time bombs exist here... and I cant tell the future. but at the very least he must get ahold of his union. they are obligated to fight this since it sets a precedence for their other members. once the fight starts... god only knows where it will end up.

they should have just sent him home and let him collect his final check and then told him he wasnt in their plans next year cause he sucks.

 

[CreeksideStrangler]

It’s absurd to think he’s banned from hockey for being a mean spirited asshole on the internet. He will get a PTO and if he earns a contract, he will get a contract.

You actually think a team eill touch him when he admitted cocaine use?

 

[BlueDream]

Nobody will remember this in two months. I mean die-hard hockey message board types will. But normal people won’t.

You're so wrong it's not even funny.

Cancel culture has gone after people for things they said years ago. If you think this will blow over and be forgotten in 2 months, you are not smart. There is no chance in hell that happens.

He's gone from the NHL for at least 2-3 years and even then, the only way he makes it back is if in a couple years he's a hugely changed man and partners with some type of organization that helps women and does a shit ton of public work for them. Other than that, his only options are minor leagues or Europe.

No NHL team is going to risk the backlash to sign a 4th liner. There are hundreds of fringe players out there that can play on a 4th line. It's super easy for every team to just pick one of them rather than try to justify bringing in someone who appears to be a cancer. The guy has been in 6 organizations already at 25 - he clearly can't help anyone win. No team is dumb enough to sign him anymore.

 

[BruinLVGA]

Do you know what's kinda sad? If Leipsic was an actually good NHL player, he would have gotten a slap on the wrist and had to take PR courses, like Seguin did when he tweeted out "nothing but steers and queers in Texas" after being traded to Dallas.

If you remember, Dallas even made Seguin deactivate his Twitter account for a while. They didn't want to take any chance.

 

[varano]

Meh hes KHL bound for sure...

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

This dude better hope he saved his money cuz his career is donezo.

Good luck finding work anywhere now.

 

[Petrus]

I remember something my old boss use to tell me about writing on email: if your email cannot withstand the scrutiny of the front page of a newspaper, you cannot write it and send it out.

Meaning: you cannot put your team and company in disrepute.

I have followed this rule on social media any form of e-messaging.

 

[Sinistril]

You actually think a team eill touch him when he admitted cocaine use?

Oh please. Mike Richards was charged with possession and got a contract after. Dozens of other players are either known users / been caught / et cetera. Players have spent time in prison and came back to the league, got cushy coaching jobs after, et cetera. We celebrate people that have admitted to their substance abuse issues if they were stars. Everyone loves Theo Fleury despite his serious substance issues. There are far worse things that have happened, and if Leipsic is a good enough player he will return to the league in some way. He probably is not good enough though. Therein lies his main problem.

Either way, he might be a shitty person or he might have serious issues that he is dealing with that we do not know about. It's not really our business as most humans are flawed. Half the people on this forum have probably done far worse things and never even realised it.

 

[Sinistril]

Well Voynov didn't talk smack about his teammates or their wives. Let alone the admitted drug substance abuse.

True. Glad you got your priorities straight. Talking smack about people and taking a drug that a good proportion of NHL players use is far worse than beating your wife.

 

[Petrus]

Oh please. Mike Richards was charged with possession and got a contract after. Dozens of other players are either known users / been caught / et cetera. Players have spent time in prison and came back to the league, got cushy coaching jobs after, et cetera. We celebrate people that have admitted to their substance abuse issues if they were stars. Everyone loves Theo Fleury despite his serious substance issues. There are far worse things that have happened, and if Leipsic is a good enough player he will return to the league in some way. He probably is not good enough though. Therein lies his main problem.

Either way, he might be a shitty person or he might have serious issues that he is dealing with that we do not know about. It's not really our business as most humans are flawed. Half the people on this forum have probably done far worse things and never even realised it.

Substance abuse is looked at very differently by the public. It is considered an illness.

Being seen as a misogynist and racist leads to sponsorship and media advertising dollars being cancelled.

 

[varano]

Oh please. Mike Richards was charged with possession and got a contract after. Dozens of other players are either known users / been caught / et cetera. Players have spent time in prison and came back to the league, got cushy coaching jobs after, et cetera. We celebrate people that have admitted to their substance abuse issues if they were stars. Everyone loves Theo Fleury despite his serious substance issues. There are far worse things that have happened, and if Leipsic is a good enough player he will return to the league in some way. He probably is not good enough though. Therein lies his main problem.

Either way, he might be a shitty person or he might have serious issues that he is dealing with that we do not know about. It's not really our business as most humans are flawed. Half the people on this forum have probably done far worse things and never even realised it.

I think Kuznetsov is a good player to bring up in that argument

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

True. Glad you got your priorities straight. Talking smack about people and taking a drug that a good proportion of NHL players use is far worse than beating your wife.

I never defended Voynov... I think we all know how bad domestic abuse is, but it's a topic I don't like to get near. Though I will say how it seemed to me as Leipsic and his friends talked like those kinds of people in those messages.

 

[BargainBinSpecial]

His comments were just normal conversation that people have in everyday life. He mentionned he didn't like his teammates and lashed-out on some women. Do people like all of their co-workers? Don't women bodyshame a bunch of guys online, even other women for that matter? Let's be honest, most people do this. If anything, he could of been joking around, but nobody even considered it.

Other players have done much worse and the media didn't manage to destroy their careers by labeling them misogynists. I can understand why the Caps wouldn't want to keep him around after all of this. They took a business decision to avoid any potential issues long-term and a slur of reactions online.

Ouite surprisingly, others have done far worse but are politicians now while a few athletes have been banned for a lifetime for participating in peaceful demonstrations.

People need to be very careful about what they post online, even in private chats. Hopefully, he learned from his mistake and gets another chance elsewhere.

 

[rt]

You actually think a team eill touch him when he admitted cocaine use?

I bet every team has a handful of guys who have used cocaine. Who cares? I’m sure they get good cocaine

 

[rt]

You're so wrong it's not even funny.

Cancel culture has gone after people for things they said years ago. If you think this will blow over and be forgotten in 2 months, you are not smart. There is no chance in hell that happens.

He's gone from the NHL for at least 2-3 years and even then, the only way he makes it back is if in a couple years he's a hugely changed man and partners with some type of organization that helps women and does a shit ton of public work for them. Other than that, his only options are minor leagues or Europe.

No NHL team is going to risk the backlash to sign a 4th liner. There are hundreds of fringe players out there that can play on a 4th line. It's super easy for every team to just pick one of them rather than try to justify bringing in someone who appears to be a cancer. The guy has been in 6 organizations already at 25 - he clearly can't help anyone win. No team is dumb enough to sign him anymore.

There wouldn’t be any backlash. Nobody will care about this when the news cycle picks up again.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Why? He did nothing wrong.

 

[PullHard]

You actually think a team eill touch him when he admitted cocaine use?

I think you'd be shocked by how prevalent recreational drug use is amongst NHLers

 

[GoJetsGo55]

WHAT?

WHY???













Kidding.