Buyouts?

Buyouts are an interesting concept to me. The fact that you're essentially paying people to not play seems somewhat counterintuitive - but can be very useful when dealing with poor play and large contracts. And, in the Canes case, trying to keep close to their self-imposed low salary cap.

The two names that have been bandied about when it comes to buyouts this year are Rod Brind'Amour, our ex-captain, and Sergei Samsonov. As sad as it is to say, I think that both should be bought out, although perhaps Brind'Amour deserves it more.


Samsonov didn't have that great of a year, certainly not on par with the previous one, and he never really seemed to be a deciding factor in most of the games. He might, however, just be a victim of the Canes trying to get younger and cheaper and unfortunately for Sergei, he is neither.


Brind'Amour, well, let's just say that his play has tailed off from his Selke-winning years. Two years ago, his plus-minus was absolutely horrible, and this past season he followed it up with a worse plus-minus and barely produced point-wise. He was moved to the fourth-line, he spent games in the press box, the captaincy was taken away from him. I understand that it's hard to retire... but I'm not sure that much is left in the tank.


That being said, I do not envy Rutherford for having to make this decision. Brind'Amour has been an integral part of this Canes team for many years and I don't think that a buyout is the way anyone wants this relationship to end. But, I also shudder to think of another year of Brind'Amour playing the way he did last season.


The final decision is Rutherford's and he has until the 30th to buyout either (or both) players. I wouldn't be surprised if either event occurs.


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A quick blog note: Over the next few weeks I might be moving things around here. Nothing drastic, but just a heads up that if the blog looks like someone threw up HTML I probably just messed something up. If you come back in a few hours and it still looks the same... well, maybe you should stop using IE and switch to a better browser.