Friedman: "There's still a big possibility that San Jose has to honor Kane's contract and that Kane has to return to SJ"

[lionsDen]

He wasn’t under contract, his contract was terminated.

If the contract termination was deemed ineligible to be terminated by an arbiter, Kanes contract becomes in play as a part of the Sharks again.

How can they allow him to suit up with another team before finding out. Thatss bogus being an av fan maybe kadri isn’t hurt going into the SC

 

[CanadienShark]

Wouldn't precedence have been set by the Richards issue? Kings got hit with a big cap but not as much as a buyout, Richards got most of his money, but the contract wasn't reinstated and he signed with the Caps? It worked out well there, not sure why the NHL would deviate here...

Didn't they specifically say in that ruling that this does not set precedence?

 

[zodiacbiller]

I find this interesting because, and maybe it has to do with these situations being more related to injury, but the NHL basically told the Leafs and Kings in scenarios with Owen Nolan and Mike Richards to not worry, that the contract would be considered off the books, the players would be considered UFAs, and all that mattered from the arbitrator was whether the teams had to pay the players.

 

[Lempo]

Seems odd that his contract status with the Sharks can be legally disputed but he was also eligible to sign with another team.

Though NHL and its various contracts are a legal intra-NHL construction of their own, all of it still works under the real world laws. So as there are legal principles that apply above the NHL's own litle legal bubble, NHL can't really ignore them.

I can't claim I know anything about the liability and damages law in US, but I know in some legal systems there is a doctrine of "limitation of the damages", where upon damage happening the suffering party isn't allowed to just go fully passive in the situation and be like the tab is now open, but they are required to take such sensible plausible actions that limit the amount of the ensuing final damage.

If now 30 years old Kane would want to argue for the purposes of the damages, that the contractual breach of SJ has caused his expected career earnings (the SJ contract and the subsequent projected contracts) to plummet, Kane really should be able to show that he has bona fide tried his best to recover the projected career earning losses through is own actions.

That means signing a new contract and trying to ensue another contract after that one. The now-terminated SPC says that he's employed as a Skilled Hockey Player, so its only sensible that the League acknowledges that his best marketable skill is being an NHL-level skilled hockey player. It might return to bite the League if they prevented him from doing that.