Big Mac deserves better than this UPDATED 10/9
October 8th, 2008, 7:48 pm
It is real shame that it came to this. Kyle McLaren has been assigned to the Sharks AHL farm club in Worcester today in order to get his salary off the books. He is a true casualty of the salary cap era, a player who makes too much money to stay on his own team or for any other team to assume his contract this late, after most rosters have been set. The true irony is that if Big Mac had been a UFA in the offseason, he would have likely commanded “Jason Smith” type money from some team and signed a contract for the very 2.5M he was making anyways.
McLaren was nothing but a warriors for the Sharks, and while injuries slowed him down the last two years – Big Mac deserved a better ending in Teal than being forced to refuse an assignment to the minors, which is what I imagine is the next step. I think McLaren has too much pride to waste away in Worcester and might rather take the unpaid suspension and wait for a team to trade for his rights after someone gets injured. He is worthless at this point to San Jose, it’s not like they could call him up if Murray gets hurt – McLaren makes 2M more than Murray this season. He couldn’t cover Vlasic or Lukowich’s roster spot either. So…why not cut your losses, admit you couldn’t move Big Mac and outright release him? I don’t understand it. For an organization that I have always considered to be a class act, this is the first blemish I can remember on Doug Wilson’s record.
22 hours til hockey.
UPDATED: MCLAREN HAS AGREED TO ACCEPT HIS ASSIGNMENT TO WORCESTER. SEE THE COMMENT SECTION FOR HOW WE THINK THIS MIGHT PLAY OUT.
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From Pollak’s latest: “Trades remain a possibility, but until something materializes, the NHL doesn’t allow a player to stay at home, collect a paycheck and wait for the phone to ring.”
So I suppose the Sharks and McLaren could have met and mutually decided to break the contract, but that would mean McLaren would miss out on at least a million dollars. Would you do that? I’m not sure I would.
We have seen this before in other sports, where the player values playing on the NBA/NFL/MLB level more than the money itself. I think in this case, now that McLaren has agreed to accept the assignment to Worcester – he is looking to prove that he still has value to other NHL clubs.
But…here’s the rub. This scenario hasn’t worked out well for others who have tried it in the past. Example, Flyers defensemen Dennis Gauthier last season was sent to the AHL in an almost duplicate situation as McLaren – a guy who could have played for his club but salary dictated it a no-go. These guys are roughly the same age and while McLaren has the more accomplished career and around 300 more NHL games under his belt….his value is clearly declined. Last year, Gauthier was stuck in AHL limbo, no team was willing to trade for his 2.1M salary and he played 78 games for the Phantoms. I fear that McLaren could be in for the same fate…
All I’m saying is he deserved better than this. It’s the first time I think Doug Wilson has played poker and lost.