Most hockey fans, especially those of the Detroit Red Wings, know how much that current Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland loves grizzled old veteran players. What are the chances that he could elect to take a wager on a veteran who has suffered two severe injuries in the last calendar year?
According to NHL Insider Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, current Carolina Hurricanes forward Max Pacioretty could be an option for Holland this summer on a League minimum contract:
Take a look what Seravalli had to say:
“You can sign the player (over 35 years old) to a league minimum deal and add performance bonuses to that contract. That money (the performance bonuses) does not count against your cap that season. You have the option to only show $775k (league minimum) and then whatever bonuses are hit by that player they are applied to next year’s cap.”
“What happens with (Max) Pacioretty and other injured players is something that is not talked about all that often, but applies here. There is a stipulation in the CBA that you do not have to be over 35 to do the same thing with a player who has had a long-term injury and is a free agent. If you have played 400 in the NHL and you missed more than 100 days with a long-term injury you can do the same thing as an over-35 contract.”
Pacioretty is currently on Long Term Injured Reserve after he tore his right Achilles tendon, which happened to be the same one that he had torn four months prior during offseason training. He’s in the final season of the four year, $28 million deal that he signed with the Vegas Golden Knights prior to the 2019-20 NHL Season.
He certainly could be a low-risk, high-reward style of deal that could prove to be intriguing.