Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
That's not true. The NHL contracts have morality clauses, like most professional sports do. Now they are often subjective, but that wouldn't stop the Oilers from terminating the contract, what it would likely do is trigger the same issues that arose from the Kings terminating Richards contract. The league getting involved to force a settlement or await arbitration (and potentially lawsuits after where, like you said the precedent would play a role).
"(e) to conduct himself on and off the rink according to the highest standards of honesty, morality, fair play and sportsmanship, and to refrain from conduct detrimental to the best interest of the Club, the League or professional hockey generally."
I think we can all agree that racist remarks would fail to satisfy clause (e) here, making it a breach of contract. I'm not saying the ultimate outcome would be something or another, I'm saying the Oilers (like the Kings) can cite the morality clauses in the contract, say you broke them, and they are terminating the contract. Then the player can go and get the NHLPA and his lawyers involved. I also agree that the Oilers wouldn't do this anyways.
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No, we can't agree on that because the NHL itself has had a number of incidents where a racial slur did not result in anything close to a team attempting to terminate the contract. And it won't happen here either because the Oilers don't have a cause to justify it. The NHL and its affiliates already have established procedures for dealing these incidents, and they don't include contract termination. If the Oilers tried, whichever union he's represented by would file a grievance and win it easily. It would be a complete waste of time and finances.
You simply do not understand what breach of contract means, material or otherwise. Using the logic you are trying to torture, literally every player who has been subjected to supplemental discipline for any reason has breached their contracts under that same clause. The punishment, of course, is not contract termination but fines and suspensions. Same as Manning suffered here.