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

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Anyone know why Buffalo allowed him to go? They could have essentially taken him off the books through suspension, and then tried to deal his rights.

But when or if he reported back to the team, they would have to reinstate him and pay him. I doubt they wanted him on the team after this episode.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

But when or if he reported back to the team, they would have to reinstate him and pay him. I doubt they wanted him on the team after this episode.

They'd pay him until they traded him. But I would think the suspension lengthb would be up to them, within reason, since he wouldn't be in game shape.

[sureLoss]

News Update

Berglund explains why he left

https://buffalonews.com/2019/01/18/b...lues-nhl-news/

Berglund returned home and has ruled out the possibility of playing hockey again this season. Instead, he wants to focus on his mental health.

"When you feel as bad as I did, and feel what I feel today... I really feel I've made the right decision," Berglund told reporter Pasi Hiirikoski in an article translated from Swedish. "Money is the last thing that means something to me right now."

"I want to say that I'm really sorry about leaving and letting Buffalo down as a team,' Berglund said in the interview. "The players were wonderful, and I wish the players and the organization nothing but the best in the future. The have not done anything wrong."

In the recent interview, Berglund said outwardly he tried to act as if he was content with the move. However, he struggled with the transition, which forced him to leave Sweden earlier than usual to arrange a move to Buffalo.

Berglund had two goals among four points in his 23-game tenure with the Sabres. He is not ruling out possibly playing hockey again sometime in the future but has turned his focus to finding happiness.

"I don't want to say that this is the end for me, I hope I can find the joy to play again," he said. "Right now, I can't tell whether I will play again or not. I'm in the process of healing."

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

News Update

Berglund explains why he left

https://buffalonews.com/2019/01/18/b...lues-nhl-news/

Need some pepper?

Originally Posted by Split98

I have no time for anyone who pulls that garbage.

Time to go home.

Originally Posted by Split98

Sure, he feels burned...

...but refusing to play for the team who gave up assets to have you on the roster is about as crappy as you can be. That nearly $13M wasn't enough for you to play hockey in a city that isn't your favourite is inexcusable.

That he and his agent failed in their responsibility to submit teams as well just further aids to this apparent tantrum being an embarrassment to this professional hockey player.

Good riddance.

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.

Originally Posted by Split98

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?

[GullFoss]

So reading in between the lines, Berglund is suffering from depression or another mental illness. Just out of curiosity, why wasn't Buffalo forced to place him on LTIR? Just another example of how mental illness isn't taking seriously.

If the illness was serious enough that Berglund was willing to give up $12.5m to deal with it, it was serious enough that he should be getting LTIR or disability pay.

[TheIronMaiden]

This emphasizes the amount of stress players are under constantly.

[Split98]

"I want to say that I'm really sorry about leaving and letting Buffalo down as a team," Berglund said in the interview. "The players were wonderful, and I wish the players and the organization nothing but the best in the future. The have not done anything wrong."

Good on him. Consider my words eaten, you absolutely don't wish this on anyone.

Bold move to walk away like he did, and great to hear he's happy with the decision. Wish the guy the best, and very glad to hear it wasn't as it appeared to me.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Split98

"I want to say that I'm really sorry about leaving and letting Buffalo down as a team," Berglund said in the interview. "The players were wonderful, and I wish the players and the organization nothing but the best in the future. The have not done anything wrong."

Good on him. Consider my words eaten, you absolutely don't wish this on anyone.

Bold move to walk away like he did, and great to hear he's happy with the decision. Wish the guy the best, and very glad to hear it wasn't as it appeared to me.

Sooo, maybe next time wait until all the facts are out before declaring a player as an embarrassment and scummy?

[djsFlames]

Those were some disappointing comments by CPers.

We can be better than that.

[SeanCharles]

For starters I understand when reading between the lines it leads one to believe he may be dealing with some mental health issues.

But on the other side of the coin it sounds like the fact he got traded is what spun him into the state he was in. That paired with the fact he didn't submit his list of approved teams to be traded to in time which to me probably means Buffalo wouldn't have been on that list.


Being traded is part of the game and is something most, if not all, players should expect could happen.


Like I said I'm not saying anything negative about Berglund but the article reads as if he was extremely upset about being traded to Buffalo because it wouldn't have been on his approved list, something else that he was extremely upset about (not submitting list on time).


Sidenote: I always wondered if he'd end up here because he is one of Backlund's good friends.

[Itse]

Inability to provide that list of teams always sounded to me like a warning sign that there might be something seriously wrong we don't know about.

That kind of stuff is just so typical for hidden mental illness, some really important yet theoretically really easy thing just becoming impossible, even if you otherwise appear to be fully functioning.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

So reading in between the lines, Berglund is suffering from depression or another mental illness. Just out of curiosity, why wasn't Buffalo forced to place him on LTIR? Just another example of how mental illness isn't taking seriously.

If the illness was serious enough that Berglund was willing to give up $12.5m to deal with it, it was serious enough that he should be getting LTIR or disability pay.

Exactly. Yet Hossa can get LTIR for being allergic to his gloves.

[Badgers Nose]

Good for him, he has a long life ahead of him. Hope he sorts his #### out.

[Matty81]

Like gullfoss said, I'm pretty shocked he wasn't able to go on LTIR and get his money if he was suffering from mental illness. I hope the guy didn't feel he needed to do it to avoid stigma as I've never seen an NHL player go on a stress leave publicly and wonder if he initiated not wanting to advertise what he was going through.

Maybe that wasn't the case but I'm continually amazed how our society treats mental illness as somehow less of an injury than a broken bone and how many folks feel that kind of shame.

Hope he's in a better place mentally soon.

[klikitiklik]

Originally Posted by Split98

"I want to say that I'm really sorry about leaving and letting Buffalo down as a team," Berglund said in the interview. "The players were wonderful, and I wish the players and the organization nothing but the best in the future. The have not done anything wrong."

Good on him. Consider my words eaten, you absolutely don't wish this on anyone.

Bold move to walk away like he did, and great to hear he's happy with the decision. Wish the guy the best, and very glad to hear it wasn't as it appeared to me.

Respect for owning your comments.

[Red Potato Standing By]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

So reading in between the lines, Berglund is suffering from depression or another mental illness. Just out of curiosity, why wasn't Buffalo forced to place him on LTIR? Just another example of how mental illness isn't taking seriously.

If the illness was serious enough that Berglund was willing to give up $12.5m to deal with it, it was serious enough that he should be getting LTIR or disability pay.

I agree, but I can imagine the amount of people of who would say he is or the team is just faking it to get out of the cap hit.He may not want to have to deal with that as well. I mean if you are in that state the last thing you want or need is a bunch of people questioning your integrity.

[GordonBlue]

Everyone seems to be pretty quickly saying he could be/is mentally ill.
Could also be just a rough patch in his life due to a combination of stressors.
Doesn't mean he has mental health issues.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

Everyone seems to be pretty quickly saying he could be/is mentally ill.
Could also be just a rough patch in his life due to a combination of stressors.
Doesn't mean he has mental health issues.

Well, it says right in the article that he’s focusing on his mental health.

Mental health is no different than body health. “I don’t have a disease” doesn’t mean you aren’t sick, it doesn’t mean you aren’t ill or don’t need to address an issue.

So, yeah, a rough patch in his life that results in him struggling with his mental health enough that he gives up 12.5m to go away and address it means it was an issue. Not sure how you define it as anything else.

[Spinach]

As someone who has struggled with clinical depression before, I can absolutely confirm that feeling that way can lead to making decisions that seem incomprehensible to onlookers or, for that matter, to those close to you. That doesn't mean they're poor decisions; in fact, they may be for the best in the long run.

Further, during a depressive period, even a small change or seemingly minor negative experience can be enough to occasion a severe downward spiral. I'd have to think being traded when you don't really want to be would be nigh unbearable when you're already depressed. Some players and alumni have likened it to being fired and, in a depressed state, it would be very difficult to see the flipside, ie. that another team wanted you.

I'm not trying to be preachy - I'm just not hip (is that still a word?) enough to know whether this is relatively common knowledge amongst North American sports fans.
One thing's for sure: the stigma against mental illness is diminishing in the sports world, and that's thanks in part to players like Berglund being open about their experience.

Oddly enough, just reading the thread title made me wonder whether Berglund is struggling with depression, for whatever that's worth.

[sempuki]

Just want to confirm that in a depressed state even "minor" things can send you into a spiral.

Good on him, his life is worth more than X million dollars, and in Sweden you can have a really great life with what he's already got. It's just a child's game in the end.