Canada4Gold
Registered User
- Dec 22, 2010
- 42,999
- 9,191
If that were the case why would they have given him a NMC? If the contract does the talking, and we look at all aspects of the contract, the most sensible explanation is that they structured it in such a way so that he would have the oprion to retire early without adversely affecting the Leafs' cap situation.
There is also no chance they made some kind if arrangement at the beginning of the deal. No way do you keep yourself in as good shape as Marleau and then say "yup, I will definitely be ready to be put out to pasture in a couple years, let's build a contract that will force you to o ship me out to Arizona in a couple years"
I don't know the reason, but that's definitely not it. It's a 35+ contract. The cap hit counts even if he were to retire. See Datsyuk.