The five season, love-hate relationship between Alexi Yashin and the New York Islanders is finally over. Today, the Islanders owner Charles Wang announced that the team decided to buy out the remaining 4 seasons of Yashin's 10 year contract. The two-thirds payout will amount to $17.63 million dollars, which will be metted out at approximately $2.2 million per year for 8 years. That $2.2 million figure will also go against the Isles salary cap over the same period.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/ny-spisles065244241jun06,0,5819060.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines
Wang, head coach Ted Nolan, and Yashin himself, had nothing but positive things to say about each other, at least to the media. Behind the scenes, I'm sure it was a different matter. I believe that Wang had to be convinced by his current coach, GM and other advisory staff that buying out Yashin was best for the team. For years now, Wang has been told otherwise about Yashin from the team's then GM, Mike Milbury. Since it's Wang's money, Wang should have the ultimate decision, especially since it must be particularly difficult to pay an ex-employee to do nothing for your organization for 8 years!
If anything, Mike Milbury leaving the hockey organization must show how much of a Yashin supporter he was. 'Mad' Mike was the one who had the idea to sign Yashin, and he must have convinced Wang that the idea of such a long term (10 year), big salary contract was a great idea. Milbury's short-sightedness [ie. rating Yashin's talent over his professional committment, previous history of money over playing for sitting out a contract year] was not just a matter of "hindsight being 20-20". If he had talked to any Ottawa Senator's fan, he would have discovered why. Yashin is a money player, but not in the traditional sense of being reliable whenever the pressure is on, such as when the playoffs have arrived. He managed a mere 27 points in 48 postseason games, including 12 in 22 games for the Islanders. However, he had no points during this season's 5 games first round playoff defeat to the Buffalo Sabres, during which time he was demoted to the 4th line and subsequently benched during a few of the 5 games. During his stay in Ottawa, Yashin kept saying to the media, his agent and anyone else who would listen, that he was worth more than what he "earned" from his salary. I don't believe he's proven his point.
Since he's just become an unrestricted free agent, it will be very interesting to see how much appeal Alexei will have from the 28 other NHL team's. It's difficult to predict how much a player of his type of talent and excessive baggage will draw. Currently, there are three big name centres that will be available: Scott Gomez, Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. All three are younger than the 33-year old Yashin. Alexei will be slogging it out with the likes of centres Eric Lindros, Dainus Zubrus and Michal Hadzus; in the end he'll be fortunate to sign for more then $1 million.
It's no coincidence that Yashin and Milbury both left the Islanders organization within 1 week of each other.
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