[News] UPD: Berglund on waivers to terminate contract. Gives up ~$12.5 million.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Generally, a court will not force a person who signs a personal service contract from fulfilling the terms of that contract (that is, they won't require specific performance).

In same cases the aggrieved party may be able to sue for damages, or prevent the party who walked away from providing those services elsewhere.

They can potentially sue for damages. Except the damages would be weighed against the fact they no longer have to pay him. They can't get an injunction against him playing elsewhere (I assume non-NHL) because they'd have to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm. Besides, those teams are all out of NA court jurisdiction (I'm assuming the CBA prevents him from playing in the NHL).

[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by Split98

I think where my opinion splits from everyone else, is I do not see professional athletes as a group that shares the same working conditions as 99% of us out there. What we're all talking about is very important, and I fully agree.

However, this isn't an electrician who was transferred without any consent across the country at a moment's notice. He is playing in the same National league, is supported by the same Players Association, and I have yet to hear of any dangerous or unethical practices the Buffalo Sabres asked him to perform that the St. Louis Blues did not. He signed a contract to play hockey, was compensated immensely for his services and threw in the towel when he didn't get what he wanted. I'm not seeing much else here, and I'm fairly surprised a player who refuses to play for a team he was traded to has such support. This isn't some labour dispute... it's a player who seemingly only plays for teams he likes.

As well, if this was a player who was traded to the Sabres, contributed to the team as he did for St. Louis, and Buffalo treated him like garbage in return... we have a different story. But it's still only December, so this narrative doesn't seem to diverge too much from "I don't want to play for Buffalo". Which is garbage. Let's also not forget that he had a very simple option of submitting the teams he was obligated to submit... and he didn't.

Family is also very important. A lot of people never become pro athletes due to the travel and distance from your family. Maroon, for example, signed contract in St. Louis to be with his family. He would have a lot of support from myself if he simply walked away from the game when his contract ended.


So again... "good riddance".
He can do what he wants - but I think he's pretty scummy for it.

Again we do not know what is going on behind the scenes with the guy. So calling a person scummy without knowing the facts is not cool.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Do you guys realize that this is a human being not a robot or a piece of meat. He doesn't want to play in buffalo, he shouldn't have to. He's made 25 million USD in his life, if he's not happy then why should he play out his contract, to make some anonymous hockey fans happy. Get real.

Because he knew the risks of signing an NHL contract that didn’t protect him from a trade. There are very few downsides to making millions in the NHL, having to travel all year and being at risk to end up in any of the 31 NHL markets during your contract is one of them. His eyes were wide open to that when he accepted the dough.....honor your contract.

To your point about being a piece of meat, fair. But again NHL players are compansated very generously, and one of the reasons is they aren’t just simple employees, they are both assets to the teams and league and also the product. Again in my mind you can’t have your cake and eat it too, accept the downsides of your very lucrative job or don’t even bother in the first place.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Muffins

Please correct me if i'm wrong here, but after the contract is terminated, couldn't he "theoretically" sign with another team for more money?

He could "theoretically" sign for more. But if that were the case, said team would have probably traded for him rather than committing to a higher contract.

It would be like paying higher than sticker price at a car dealership.

[Psytic]

I haven't been following this thread but does this make him a FA? I'd take a flyer on him. Still a good player I dont really care he doesnt want to play in Buffallo. I wouldnt want to live there either.

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Because he knew the risks of signing an NHL contract that didn’t protect him from a trade. There are very few downsides to making millions in the NHL, having to travel all year and being at risk to end up in any of the 31 NHL markets during your contract is one of them. His eyes were wide open to that when he accepted the dough.....honor your contract.

he's now surrendering the dough because he doesnt like his conditions of employment anymore

[CroFlames]

So he simply didn't want to play in Buffalo anymore?



How bad could things be to walk away from $12.5MM USD? At the end of they day, you're playing hockey and not exactly riding the bus in the AHL.



I suppose he can't play in the NHL under any circumstance this season?

[GioforPM]

Buffalo is the main victim, subject to the fact that I wonder what the Sabres were told by St. Louis. The fact he had a limited NTC would have been known. So were they told "it's not an issue" or "he hasn't submitted in time and we are rushing to make sure we can trade him before he somehow corrects his error".

I'm not keen on how St. Louis handled it. Pouncing on an error isn't good business practice. I'm not keen on the "pick up my ball and go home" approach by the player to the extent it's a tactic to be moved to somewhere preferable to him. If it's an unrelated retirement, then say so.

[sureLoss]

Once the contract is terminated he will be UFA. Free to sign with any team.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Once the contract is terminated he will be UFA. Free to sign with any team.

I assume that's why he's suspended and not fired.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Once the contract is terminated he will be UFA. Free to sign with any team.

I thought even UFAs needed to be signed by Dec 1 to play (or was it to play in playoffs?)

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by stone hands

he's now surrendering the dough because he doesnt like his conditions of employment anymore

Yes but to the point of the addition to my post, he kind of screws the team he got traded too. I have zero sympathy for NHL players who pick their ball up and go home after a trade, don’t jump in if you don’t like the risks.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Because he knew the risks of signing an NHL contract that didn’t protect him from a trade. There are very few downsides to making millions in the NHL, having to travel all year and being at risk to end up in any of the 31 NHL markets during your contract is one of them. His eyes were wide open to that when he accepted the dough.....honor your contract.

To your point about being a piece of meat, fair. But again NHL players are compansated very generously, and one of the reasons is they aren’t just simple employees, they are both assets to the teams and league and also the product. Again in my mind you can’t have your cake and eat it too, accept the downsides of your very lucrative job or don’t even bother in the first place.

He had trade protection. In the previous season he had a full NTC. This season he had a 20 team no trade list. It has been reported by Friedman that for some reason his no trade list wasn't submitted in time allowing the Blues to trade Berglund wherever they liked.

Typically players give up money for a NTC. We still don't know exactly why his list wasn't submitted in time, but if it wasn't due to his own negligence, he has the right to be pissed.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I thought even UFAs needed to be signed by Dec 1 to play (or was it to play in playoffs?)

RFAs need to be signed by Dec 1. UFAs can be signed at any point in the season. UFAs must sign before the trade deadline to be eligible for the playoffs.

[neo45]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Yes but to the point of the addition to my post, he kind of screws the team he got traded too. I have zero sympathy for NHL players who pick their ball up and go home after a trade, don’t jump in if you don’t like the risks.

I feel like he was a cap dump with minimal value in the trade anyways. After how he has played this year he had negative value. Buffalo is probably pretty thrilled at this.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

He had trade protection. In the previous season he had a full NTC. This season he had a 20 team no trade list. It has been reported by Friedman that for some reason his no trade list wasn't submitted in time allowing the Blues to trade Berglund wherever they liked.

Typically players give up money for a NTC. We still don't know exactly why his list wasn't submitted in time, but if it wasn't due to his own negligence, he has the right to be pissed.

If it was his fault he needs to Accept his mistake and deal.

[Psytic]

I dont get it people make jokes all the time that a player should do this to the Oilers to get out of that mess. Someone finally does in Buffalo and it's a cardinal sin. Granted Buffalo has a good team now but if he doesn't want to play there then okay. I've had jobs I've hated in the past and I've left. Its mutually beneficial rather than having someone there struggling and spoiling the morale. You're not a bad person because something isn't a fit.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Psytic

I dont get it people make jokes all the time that a player should do this to the Oilers to get out of that mess. Someone finally does in Buffalo and it's a cardinal sin. Granted Buffalo has a good team now but if he doesn't want to play there then okay. I've had jobs I've hated in the past and I've left. Its mutually beneficial rather than having someone there struggling and spoiling the morale. You're not a bad person because something isn't a fit.

I'm not sure anyone is attacking the player?


More like bewilderment at leaving that much green on the table simply because you aren't enjoying yourself. I would gladly pull an Oilers sweater over my head and smile about it for $12.5MM.

[Muffins]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

He could "theoretically" sign for more. But if that were the case, said team would have probably traded for him rather than committing to a higher contract.

It would be like paying higher than sticker price at a car dealership.

True, but Berglund might not be the best example of what I was going after.
What's to stop a player from doing the same thing in order to get out of a team friendly contract, and sign a long term deal with another team?

[Split98]

Originally Posted by kukkudo

Again we do not know what is going on behind the scenes with the guy. So calling a person scummy without knowing the facts is not cool.

Again, I'll eat my words if something besides 'it's just not ideal for me'.
I've been pretty clear that I am against Berglund refusing to play for an NHL team he doesn't like. That is very scummy and he can join Drouin on the list of scum-players I hope never play here.

Given the timeline, it seems pretty clear that he doesn't like the trade - and you're optimistically reaching to assume there's much more.

Does he want to go home? Why did he sign a 5-year contract last year?
Is being near STL important? How much of that $3,850,000 were you not willing to give up in negotiations?

I also can't state enough that if playing in Buffalo was this much of an issue for him it was very much on the table for him to refuse the trade. He failed to do so, and is unwilling to accept the consequences. I don't understand how this is a supported view.

This also started after he was scratched. He put up a whopping 2 pts in October, and only added 2 pts (in a 9-1 win over OTT) before being scratched mid-Nov. Since then, he's refused to show up for the team.

That's a pretty firm timeline that leads me to believe that there's not much more than him disliking his time in Buffalo, and taking the road of screwing off over upholding his commitments. Pretty scummy if you ask me.

If we scratched Neal right now and he stopped showing up are all of you going to line up to tell me how great he is? What if we gave up an asset like O'Reilly to get him?