Datsyuk Going To His Actual Home. In Russia. Finally.

[TheOtherOne]

He didn't "suddenly" get homesick. He'd been homesick the whole time. We'd been reading stories about it for *years* before he finally up and left. And it was getting to the point where his body couldn't handle an NHL season and we weren't competitive so why bother?

I get being mad that he didn't play out his contract because a contract is a contract and people should keep their word. But I don't think he hurt the team. Even if we hadn't been able to offload the contract to Arizona I don't think it hurts that much. Oh no, we have dead cap space. If only we'd been able to use it we could have been a contender.

I mean I guess "suddenly" is subjective but my interpretation is he signed a contract indicating that he wouldn't get homesick for he next X amount of years, but then "suddenly" within that timeframe, he did.

Other than that I agree with everything you said.

I mean I'm not gonna throw vegetables at the guy. I probably won't even boo him. I just will always disrespect the decision he made.

 

[Winger98]

I mean I guess "suddenly" is subjective but my interpretation is he signed a contract indicating that he wouldn't get homesick for he next X amount of years, but then "suddenly" within that timeframe, he did.

Other than that I agree with everything you said.

I mean I'm not gonna throw vegetables at the guy. I probably won't even boo him. I just will always disrespect the decision he made.

Damn straight you won't. We throw cephalopods here. Preferably octopus, but I think we're all okay with the occasional squid should the situation dictate. Like a shortage of octopus.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Damn straight you won't. We throw cephalopods here. Preferably octopus, but I think we're all okay with the occasional squid should the situation dictate. Like a shortage of octopus.

Now I'm picturing an octopus sticking to his face and him just continuing to skate through it like a Russian terminator.

No idea where that came from...

 

[FMichael]

Never thought Dats would be 'homesick' for 'Murica.

Maybe the perks of being an NHL'er really are better than that of a KHL'er?

 

[Ezekial]

Never thought Dats would be 'homesick' for 'Murica.

Maybe the perks of being an NHL'er really are better than that of a KHL'er?

Nothing makes it seem he is.

 

[Syckle78]

So datsyuk is a bad guy for retiring at 37 but everyone is cool with Z walking away and collecting his paycheck still once his salary dropped off. Neat.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

So datsyuk is a bad guy for retiring at 37 but everyone is cool with Z walking away and collecting his paycheck still once his salary dropped off. Neat.

Datsyuk is playing hockey, he isn't retired.

 

[chances14]

So datsyuk is a bad guy for retiring at 37 but everyone is cool with Z walking away and collecting his paycheck still once his salary dropped off. Neat.

he didn't retire. he's still playing hockey in russia

 

[Syckle78]

Datsyuk is playing hockey, he isn't retired.

He's retired from the nhl. Let's not play semantics. He went to play at a cream puff league.

 

[Syckle78]

he didn't retire. he's still playing hockey in russia

Oy vey.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

He's retired from the nhl. Let's not play semantics. He went to play at a cream puff league.

And to make a lot more money than he could make on what remained of his existing deal in the NHL if you aren't cream puffing it.

Zetterberg is collecting the insurance money on his contact while living in Detroit with a career ending injury. Those are not apples to apples, that is a ridiculously bad comparison.

 

[Syckle78]

And to make a lot more money than he could make on what remained of his existing deal in the NHL if you aren't cream puffing it.

Who cares? He's free to do whatever he wants in retirement. He obviously couldn't handle the grind of the nhl anymore. Why be upset because he had the option to play semi pro at home and make money?

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Who cares? He's free to do whatever he wants in retirement. He obviously couldn't handle the grind of the nhl anymore. Why be upset because he had the option to play semi pro at home and make money?

Well the Ilitch family and several around the organization.

I guess I care when people break their words and obligations. He is free to do what he wants, but he can live with the decisions.

That it did tarnish his legacy with some. It is a part of the picture. The second best league in the world isn't semi-pro either. Not when you're making millions with tax exemptions and that is before the rumored brief case payments the stars get over there. Just like with Kovy, the league should have fought this and didn't in my opinion. The Wings helped him out there, that was their helping him even despite what he did. But don't look for a #13 jersey retirement, I expect them to reissue it within the decade to someone. Maybe if the Ilitch's sell the team or Zetterberg talks them into it.

 

[Syckle78]

Well the Ilitch family and several around the organization.

I guess I care when people break their words and obligations. He is free to do what he wants, but he can live with the decisions.

That it did tarnish his legacy with some. It is a part of the picture. The second best league in the world isn't semi-pro either. Not when you're making millions with tax exemptions and that is before the rumored brief case payments the stars get over there. Just like with Kovy, the league should have fought this and didn't in my opinion. The Wings helped him out there, that was their helping him even despite what he did. But don't look for a #13 jersey retirement, I expect them to reissue it within the decade to someone. Maybe if the Ilitch's sell the team or Zetterberg talks them into it.

Lol he didn't break his word or commitment. Retirement is s thing. If it wasn't the league wouldn't be set up for it. Why are you acting like he's the first guy to ever retire with time left on his contract? I don't see anyone else being slagged for retiring from the nhl at 37. Most players don't even make it that far. The funny part is datsyuk retiring did absolutely nothing to harm the team in anyway. Your boy walking away once his yearly money dropped is a much bigger case of breaking your word and commitment.

Klh absolutely is a cream puff semi pro league. Oil oligarchs paying billions to have a neat hobby doesn't change that. Jagr himself said that playing there prolonged his career.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Lol he didn't break his word or commitment. Retirement is s thing. If it wasn't the league wouldn't be set up for it. Why are you acting like he's the first guy to ever retire with time left on his contract? I don't see anyone else being slagged for retiring from the nhl at 37. Most players don't even make it that far. The funny part is datsyuk retiring did absolutely nothing to harm the team in anyway. Your boy walking away once his yearly money dropped is a much bigger case of breaking your word and commitment.

Wow that takes some mental gymnastics. My boy flunking a physical and being medically unable to play competitive hockey and not doing so again is retiring. A dude lacing them up in a different league for more money after demanding a five year contract trying to walk out on his three year contract two months after he signed it and basically completely lying throughout all of the process. He even announced his plans to retire in a detrimental way and tanked what was left of the season for the team and himself in the second year of the three year deal was a lot worse. Astronomically worse according to those around the team.

The big stop on Zetterberg was supposed to be next year in the years they (Both the Detroit Red Wings and Henrik Zetterberg) didn't know would be retroactively targeted by the league. But he wanted to play this year, he said it over and over. Said it emphatically at locker room clear out day. He is not able to do so and is actually retired from professional hockey. Datsyuk is playing professional hockey for top dollar on what amounts to the New York Yankees circa the 90's of European Hockey. Some 3 hours flight from Yaketerinberg.

Again these are not apples to apples comparisons. The only guy contractually I can compare to Datsyuk in my years of watching the team is Uwe Krupp. In terms of a willful disregard of his signed agreement.

Be mad at Zetterberg, I am fine with that. I understand what happened there and assuming he doesn't show up with Timra for more than some legends skate for a shift in the next five years I will continue to be at peace with that. What Datsyuk did was ********, I still enjoyed the heck out of watching him play for 15 years. He is a HHOF guy for sure. He however did royally **** up leaving and it is a part of it for some of us and always will be. Probably more important than dudes talking on the internet is people around the team tell you that it was bad and they are upset that is how he went about his business. So he burned some bridges and probably took his shot at certain things away, that is life. Again my guess is his bigger bank account and gold medal keep him from thinking on this often.

My position on Datsyuk's departure isn't going to change much. Glad as someone that rooted for him and got a lot of joy out of watching him play hockey that a few of his stated goals when he left have been achieved. He was around a top 10 player in the KHL when he first got back so meaningful to the league and the Russian fans he wanted to have see him still near his high level and he did get his gold medal. His departure was awful though and I don't understand nor am I likely to have a change of heart that sees it in a positive or who cares kind of light.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Who cares? He's free to do whatever he wants in retirement. He obviously couldn't handle the grind of the nhl anymore. Why be upset because he had the option to play semi pro at home and make money?

The fans should care.

Imagine taking the same action to the extreme. Connor McDavid loves Russia and wants to go live there, and he also has a weird personal vendetta against DRW. So he signs a $15M/10yr contract with us and immediately f***s off to join the KHL. Should we care about that? What makes it fundamentally different from the Datsyuk situation? Nothing. It's just the scale of it. In both cases, the player promised to play for X years, then willingly ducked out for non-health reasons, screwing DRW with a big cap hit. I'm a fan of the team, he hurt my team, I care.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Lol he didn't break his word or commitment. Retirement is s thing. If it wasn't the league wouldn't be set up for it. Why are you acting like he's the first guy to ever retire with time left on his contract? I don't see anyone else being slagged for retiring from the nhl at 37. Most players don't even make it that far. The funny part is datsyuk retiring did absolutely nothing to harm the team in anyway. Your boy walking away once his yearly money dropped is a much bigger case of breaking your word and commitment.

Klh absolutely is a cream puff semi pro league. Oil oligarchs paying billions to have a neat hobby doesn't change that. Jagr himself said that playing there prolonged his career.

One major thing you keep getting wrong is that Datsyuk didn't retire. Retiring is when you stop playing hockey.

Datsyuk broke his contract to go play in another league. He's played 135 professional hockey games since leaving the Wings.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Well as it turns out that was for the lifetime of the contract so interestingly Carolina would have had to pay some of that out when they lost to us in the finals years later while he was still under contract.

Not exactly.

While you're correct in that Carolina would have to pay out that $12M bonus at some point, it was to be distributed in one of two ways:

A. Paid out in one lump sum if the team made the conference finals (some articles talking about the offer sheet just say "this year" meaning 1998, but I suppose it could've spanned that entire first 4 years?)
B. Paid out over the first 4 years of the deal (no real explanation on how it was to be distributed if the above wasn't met, or was met after 97-98)

WAKE OF HURRICANE SERGEI

Just $12 million of the $38 million is Fedorov's base salary, which will be paid at $2 million per year. He will receive a $14 million signing bonus, which will bump him to $16 million this year, leaving a final $12 million.

But that's the kicker, a scare tactic the Hurricanes hope discourages Detroit owner Mike Ilitch from matching the offer.

The $12 million will be paid to Fedorov over the next four years unless the team reaches the conference finals. Then the bonus must be paid in one lump sum.
Since the Hurricanes are unlikely to make it to the finals in the near future, it doesn't affect them.

But since Detroit will likely make it to the finals this year, between the two bonuses and the base salary, the bill for Fedorov would cost $28 million for just 25 regular-season games of work.

So then your point about Carolina having to pay Fedorov that money when they "lost to us in the finals years later" is false. He would've already gotten all $12M at least a year before that.

It wasn't just contingent on that year, they would have also needed to pay a bonus if they achieved certain levels of success with Fedorov there which were pretty likely given what he would have elevated that team to.

"Pretty likely" is a big stretch. Not including the first year where he only played 21 games and the playoffs, Fedorov produced at a lower clip than he had his entire career previously until the last year of that deal. Sure, maybe he would've shown up more in Carolina given that he was no longer playing somewhere he didn't want to be in Yzermans shadow. However, he also wouldn't have had as deep and talented of a team as he had in Detroit.

Other factors to consider for Fedorov's hypothetical elevating of the Hurricanes:

-How does Fedorov's up front $14M signing bonus affect Carolina's ability to put a quality team around him? Especially when you consider that they were still in debt from the move from Hartford...
-They would've had to give up their next 5 first round picks (one of which they used in a deal for Ozolinsh, who they converted into a couple regulars from the 2002 finals team)
-How much more of an impact would Fedorov have made over the 1C they got a few months later in Ron Francis? Sure, Francis was 6.5 years older, but in the time during Fedorov's contract that overlapped Francis being with the Canes, Fedorov was at .90PPG on a much more talented team, while Francis was at .80PPG on a team where the best options at wing were guys like Jeff O'Neill and Sami Kapanen... That team around Francis was probably better considering they didn't have to pay Francis a truckload up front and didn't have to give up any first rounders to bring him in.

 

[ShelbyZ]

IMO, this is just Bob McKenzie fishing for Twitter cred on a slow news cycle.

The only realistic factors that might lead Datsyuk back to the NHL would be Justin Abdelkader paying him half his salary so he can have another 20 goal season... Or maybe Dr. Rahmani is losing business and offered a lucrative endorsement deal. That's it.

It really isn't much of a secret that Datsyuk left for money. If you read Ken Daniel's "If these walls could talk" book, there's a bit where he discusses sitting next to Datsyuk on the team bus/plane and listening to Pavel vent about the slowly increasing Escrow withholding and quickly dropping refunds.

That Escrow situation hasn't changed (and is one of the major factors that will likely bring about the next lockout), so he's still likely to get paid much less than he does in the KHL (where he also apparently pays little to no taxes and ZERO Escrow). Especially when you consider that most NHL teams probably wouldn't pay him a ton of base salary if he was coming back to the league at 41 after being out for three seasons. He's probably looking at $2M with some performance bonuses he'd have to meet to get what he really wants.

I don't know what else would bring him back? He's won two Cups and now he gets to play less games and make more money.

 

[Snuggs]

Wow, Datsyuk left the NHL for alot of reasons imo. That no one here is getting.

1. He wanted to go to be more apart of his daughter's life in Russia. I believe he said one was 12- 13 or something and was with his previous wife and was also having/had a new daughter with his new wife and due to playing in the NHL wasn't exactly there for things in person much. I'm sure things were real difficult with the oldest daughter being him and the mother weren't even together to support the relationship.

2. The team wasn't competitive. ( The team was only making the playoffs because he was on it. )

3. He was given/paid more money to go play in the KHL than here actually if I remember right the first year at least.

4. He let his intentions be known to the organization so they could managed to do something with him before he retired.

Idk, none of this was on a Federov level imo who held out once, then signed an offer sheet I believe from Carolina, then moved on for less money in FA to a worst team.

*If Federov would of just signed the deal the Red Wings offered him vs Anaheim the Red Wings dynasty could of lasted much longer. There still would of been a time where Federov was competeting for Cups in 07/08/09 with this team. Dastsyuk/Federov/Zetterberg could of been a beloved and historic trio. If he just stayed the coarse he'd of maybe won 5 or more cups imo and real debate would of been up for who deserved the captaincy after Yzerman.


So as far as his return to the NHL. Nah not happening unless his Daughter is/has become busy with charter schooling or something. I just can't see why he'd want to come back to North America and not be apart of her life vs playing in Russia an at least getting some opportunity to see his daughter, etc.

 

[aar000n]

In the end he signed a contract and did not honor his contract.

 

[AHall88]

Who cares?

People that have way too much time on their hands and/or are part of the Ilitch family.

 

[aar000n]

So datsyuk is a bad guy for retiring at 37 but everyone is cool with Z walking away and collecting his paycheck still once his salary dropped off. Neat.

Ignoring the fact that one person had back issues and was told by the doctors to stop playing and the other guy left because he didnt want to play for the wings anymore.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Wow, Datsyuk left the NHL for alot of reasons imo. That no one here is getting.

1. He wanted to go to be more apart of his daughter's life in Russia. I believe he said one was 12- 13 or something and was with his previous wife and was also having/had a new daughter with his new wife and due to playing in the NHL wasn't exactly there for things in person much. I'm sure things were real difficult with the oldest daughter being him and the mother weren't even together to support the relationship.

2. The team wasn't competitive. ( The team was only making the playoffs because he was on it. )

3. He was given/paid more money to go play in the KHL than here actually if I remember right the first year at least.

4. He let his intentions be known to the organization so they could managed to do something with him before he retired.

Idk, none of this was on a Federov level imo who held out once, then signed an offer sheet I believe from Carolina, then moved on for less money in FA to a worst team.

*If Federov would of just signed the deal the Red Wings offered him vs Anaheim the Red Wings dynasty could of lasted much longer. There still would of been a time where Federov was competeting for Cups in 07/08/09 with this team. Dastsyuk/Federov/Zetterberg could of been a beloved and historic trio. If he just stayed the coarse he'd of maybe won 5 or more cups imo and real debate would of been up for who deserved the captaincy after Yzerman.


So as far as his return to the NHL. Nah not happening unless his Daughter is/has become busy with charter schooling or something. I just can't see why he'd want to come back to North America and not be apart of her life vs playing in Russia an at least getting some opportunity to see his daughter, etc.

Wow. Very little of this is accurate and the stuff that is only techinically so.

1) He's 3 hours away from his daughter. He's in the same country, so technically that's true, but he's still a professional hockey player who's away from home a ton.

2) Ok, that doesn't give you the go ahead to weasel out of a contract.

3) And? He had a binding contract in Detroit. I'll understand you going for more money somewhere, but not when you're under a binding contract in a salary cap league that we can't invalidate your cap hit. That was scummy on him.

4) He let the organization know his intentions to leave his 3 year contract with 2! years left on it and what they could "do" was threaten to toll his contract so he couldn't play. They couldn't feasibly get rid of the cap hit for a contract he knew he didn't want to fulfill nor could they attempt to get assets out of him by dealing him to another team. He had them over a barrel and he knew it.

It's every bit on Fedorov level. The only reason the Wings are pissed about Fedorov is that he signed a poison pill deal with Karmanos who was Illitch's rival. Karmanos pulled one of the "And he's gonna donate it all to charity" moves that you see in movies and TV shows. That Illitch had to pony up 28M to keep Fedorov because Karmanos wanted to be a dick about it.

And frankly, it's for the best that Fedorov didn't sign in Detroit just before the lockout. Fedorov's rumored deal was another 10M contract. So, with the 25% clawback, he'd be 7.5 or so. So by the sheer nature of how low the cap dipped, you'd lose several players if you wanted to keep Fedorov or you'd deal Fedorov for a real crappy return because of the cap crunch. Or you are forced to do something with Lidstrom. Or have to do some weird stuff to keep Dats and Z under the cap (more so than usual).

Also, Fedorov in 07-08? He wouldn't be part of any historic trio. He was slowing down real bad. He was traded for Teddy Roth if you remember.

 

[ShelbyZ]

*If Federov would of just signed the deal the Red Wings offered him vs Anaheim the Red Wings dynasty could of lasted much longer. There still would of been a time where Federov was competeting for Cups in 07/08/09 with this team. Dastsyuk/Federov/Zetterberg could of been a beloved and historic trio. If he just stayed the coarse he'd of maybe won 5 or more cups imo and real debate would of been up for who deserved the captaincy after Yzerman.

This team wouldn't have been anywhere close to as deep and competitive as it was from 07-09. Fedorov would've had to play absolutely lights out and worth every penny to make up for it.

Fedorov at 5yrs/$50M puts him at a $7.6M cap hit going into the cap era. That means $15.2M of a $39M cap for JUST Lidstrom and Fedorov.

Remember, this was a team that barely got Datsyuk signed under the cap at the very last minute, had over 1/3 of their roster composed of guys making just over league minimum and for a starting goalie had to settle for a somewhat washed up Chris Osgood who would have played in Detroit for a salary of 7 Taco Bell hard shell tacos a year (and not even supremes) if allowed.

Sure, with Fedorov they wouldn't have had to go get Lang. But Lang's cap hit was 50% of what Fedorov's would've been. They'd have to cut another $4.5-5M to make up the other 50% and have room to replace whoever was let go with a warm body making around $500k

They might've had to do a combination of the following:

-Trade Fedorov himself (not exactly Hollands MO however, and maybe not likely if Fedorov finishes 03-04 close to what he did in 02-03)
-Buyout or trade one or likely more of Schneider/Draper/Holmstrom/Fischer/Maltby/Legace
-Choose between Zetterberg or Datsyuk and trade the other (most likely Datsyuk because he held out well into training camp wanting Joe Thornton money)
-Let Datsyuk go to the RSL for the money he wanted
-Push Yzerman/Chelios into an earlier retirement
-If Legace goes, run a goaltending tandem of oft-injured Osgood and some $450k warm body

And then:

-Fill out their bottom line depth by rolling the dice on even more guys from the UFA bargain bin, prospects that might not have been ready or even Darryl Bootland
-Mark Mowers at 3C and Jason Woolley in the top4.

And even then, if Fedorov's game dropped off in Detroit like it did in Anaheim/Columbus/Washington while near league maximum can you even imagine the absolute roasting he and Holland would be getting if the team was barely making the playoffs around 2008 or even approaching needing a rebuild?