With the NHL pre-season having kicked off,
there are already a number of big-name young players stuck in limbo. The New Jersey Devils’
Luke Hughes, Anaheim Ducks’ Mason McTavish and Nashville Predators’
Luke Evangelista are the three notable restricted free agents left without an
NHL deal as training camp is well underway, with former first rounders
Alexander Holtz and Rasmus Kupari being the other two.
Many fans and pundits have questioned the
cost-benefit analysis of teams dragging out negotiations past training camp, as
it feels as though a trend has formed over the past number of years where
players would miss camp and even at times part of the season due to
negotiations, only to underperform that season after they’ve signed.
Before the 2004-05 lockout and subsequently
the sweeping changes to the NHL’s handling of player salaries and rights,
unrestricted free agency wasn’t really a thing for most players, as they were
mostly bound to their teams. As such, many players had longstanding holdouts.
Furthermore, teams were seemingly much more willing to play ‘hard-ball’ when
facing tough negotiations.
Chris
Kontos
Chris Kontos wasn’t a star, per se, but it
wasn’t because he lacked the skill. Once taken 15th overall in the 1982 draft
by the New York Rangers, Kontos would bounce around,
playing here, there and just about everywhere.
“I’d get called up, do my best, if the numbers
or the politics weren’t right, I’d get sent down,” he said in an article for The Score in 2018.
“If the contract wasn’t right, I’d go to Europe and play, and then come back
because somebody else was giving me a shot.
After stints in Finland,
Switzerland, Italy and even with the Canadian national team, he
would eventually sign with the Tampa Bay Lightning for 1992-93. Finally given
a legitimate opportunity, he would thrive, scoring a career high 27 goals and
51 points for third on the team. However, it was hardly a perfect season as an MCL injury cut his campaign short to just 66 games.
Between the injury and his contract situation, negotiations were dire, especially with Kontos’ eyes still set on being an
Olympian. He would make Team Canada’s 1994 Olympic team and end up
helping them win silver, but ultimately would never ice in an NHL game again.
Alexei
Yashin
Ottawa
Senators’ then captain Alexei Yashin missed a full season thanks to
a contract dispute after what would be a career-high 94-point campaign in
1998-99. He would hardly miss a step, scoring 40 goals once again and notching
88 points in 2000-01, however, the damage was done, and the team ended up
flipping him to the New York Islanders for the second-overall
pick, which would become Jason Spezza, Zdeno Chara and NHL depth player Bill
Muckalt.
Yashin remained a prolific producer, but
struggled to maintain the production he had in Ottawa with the Islanders.
However, Yashin’s case study serves as a deafening reminder that even when
things eventually pan out between team and player, these hold-outs burn bridges
that continue to burn well after the ink dries on the dotted line.
Nikolai
Khabibulin
Nikolai Khabibulin’s tale was even messier on
the team’s side. ‘The Bulin wall’ dominated in 1998-99, posting a .923 save
percentage through 63 games with the then Phoenix Coyotes before the dispute.
He then proceeded to miss nearly two full seasons due to a rift between himself
and the Coyotes. In 1999-00, Khabibulin was able to sign in the IHL, a minor
league at the time, where he won goaltender of the year, but he ended up
sitting out the 2000-01 season until his rights were dealt to the Tampa Bay
Lightning.
Ahead of the dispute, Khabibulin was coming
off a breakthrough season, fully legitimizing himself as an elite goalie talent,
and after that, the results speak for themselves. He added two All-Star game
appearances, won best goaltender at the 2002 Olympics, and in 2004, he backstopped
the Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup championship.
Michael
Peca
Michael Peca’s restricted free agency story is
yet another that ends with an eventual trade after missing a full season,
however there remain a few notable details. The Sabres’ captain was fresh off
finishing fifth in votes for the Frank J. Selke trophy at the time, with a
41-point season for the fourth highest on the team. The
tensions would eventually hit a breaking point with Peca lobbing
accusations at the NHL and the Buffalo Sabres of collusion to make an example
out of him to other star players looking to get paid – accusations that
both the team and league denied.
After plenty of posturing from the Sabres,
they’d eventually trade him to the New York Islanders, who would win big as
Peca would hit an all-time high in points with the team, with 60 in his return
to the ice in 2001-02, winning his second Selke and even finishing tenth in
Hart voting. He marks one of the few cases of players having a better season
after missing plenty of time due to holdouts.
Apart from Kontos, all of these players would
get a full training camp to get back into shape for the next season. While
missing a full season of hockey would be a tough hurdle to overcome for anyone,
these players had the runway to get themselves acclimated to the league again.
Compared to players now, who tend to only hold
out until mid-season, thanks to the Dec. 1 deadline, they aren’t afforded that
luxury. In the next piece of this two-part series, we’ll take a look at more
contemporary examples and whether they were able to thrive after missing the
start of their seasons.
