Habs Could Be Stuck with Gomez
There have been numerous articles, rumours and speculations about the Canadiens buying out Scott Gomez after this season is over. Such a move may save the Habs a lot of cap space, and would rid Montreal of a highly under performing player. Gomez is currently on the injured reserve list with a concussion, thanks to a hit from behind on Tyler Myers which led to his 3 game suspension. The fact is that concussions are difficult to recover from quickly, and have a very open ended timetable when it comes to a return date. There is the possibility that Gomez may not recover before the end of this season. If he does not, then due to a clause in the current CBA, any injured player cannot be bought out from their contract. The Habs would be stuck with him.
The conspiracy theorists would say that if Gomez wanted to leave Montreal, he could voluntarily return to the lineup to get into at least one game. However, with the guaranteed $10 million left on his contract over the next two seasons, what would his incentive be to leave? Some say that he yearns to return to New Jersey, where he started in the NHL. To do so, he’d have to accept a drastically reduced salary, but perhaps he would be happier playing there. From the team’s perspective, a buyout would save 2/3 of the $10 million left on his contract in terms of real money. Unfortunately, from a cap perspective the cap hit would actually be greater. A buyout would cost Montreal a total of $11.3 million over the next 4 seasons on the salary cap, including a little over $8 million over the next 2 seasons! Would the Canadiens want to carry that much of a cap hit over the next 4 seasons, for a player that does not play for them? Another option exists, where the Canadiens could move Gomez to the minors, where they would be obligated to pay his salary but not be subject to his restrictively high salary cap hit.
Gomez’s career is at an all time low, and has been on a steep decline since he joined Montreal. Perhaps a change of scenery would do both him and the team good. As it stands today, until Gomez returns to play from his injury, nothing definitive can be planned for, for the off season or next season.
Comment from Steve
Time March 31, 2012 at 7:59 AM
Tradition among the eskimoes used to be that when one got too old and too much of a burden on the tribe, they would get up in the middle of the night and walk away. They would eventually get tired, lie down go to sleep and permanently remove the burden from those who were still productive tribe-memebers. Doesn’t Gomez have eskimo blood? maybe a refresher course in eskimo culture might help the Habs!