I don't believe that is a Standard part of the AHL contract. You do hear about agreements like this when they are dealing with veteran players.
My understanding is that an AHL contract is a valid contract and the only way it can be broken is if Both sides agree to invalidate it.
The anatomy of an AHL contract
The one thing in this case is I believe at the end of the contract he is just an unrestricted FA and the Bruins have no rights to him. This doesn't mean the Bruins can't sign him, it just means if looks and sees the numbers and decides he wants a different org, he'd be free to go
Like I said, I don't pretend to know his contract details.
No, it's not a standard in contracts, they have to be negotiated individually. I'm not sure what we call "veterans", but there are plenty of examples last year of under-24 players opting out of their AHL deals to go play in Europe because they were not getting NHL offers. So, Is it wrong to assume these things are negotiated into contracts in some cases?
And you're correct, both sides have to terminate the contract. Even a contract that has an out clause has to be terminated, first by the player and then the team with the league.
Again, you are correct. If the Bruins choose not to sign him, he would become a free agent at the end of his contract. That's a given with NHL and AHL contracts the Bruins choose not to extend.
I just think it's foolish for an agent to find a home for a player leaving school after just one year because he wants to turn pro and not negotiate for him any opportunities that might prevent him from achieving his goal - getting an NHL contract. But I say again, I don't know if it is in fact the case.
As for the article you linked to, it doesn't dispute what I said. Even if it did, I wouldn't put any credence into an article that can't get facts straight (as is the case with that article) facts that can be found with a simple
Google search. Makes me wonder what kind of research they did.