Yashin Bought Out

Well I guess the Islanders had enough of him. I can't say that I blame them.

First of all, the $2.2 million cap hit over 8 years is better for the Islanders cap situation than his $7.415 cap hit over the next four seasons. The question of course is, will the Islanders learn their lesson or are they going to make the same mistake again with a different player?

Yashin of course has never shown that he's worth the $$$$$ and it will be very interesting to see if anybody is willing to take him now. Yashin has no motivation to rehab himself as a player because he'll get about $2.2 million from the Islanders for the next eight years in addition to any other salary he gets.

Finally, let me also point out that Yashin's contract was the basis for the contract that the Caps gave Jagr. Jagr's deal wasn't as long but because Yashin was getting almost $9 million for 10 years, the Caps had to pay Jagr more and for a long term as well which is exactly what they did. While we all knew that the Yashin contract would be an albatross, it wasn't until Jagr started pouting again that the Caps got ripped for the contract. However, after making the trade to get Jagr, the Caps couldn't afford to let him test the UFA waters as everybody was saying he would after one season. It was the only way the Caps at the time could get the credibility that they were looking for when they made the trade for Jagr.

And of course, if you believe Larry Brooks (and I don't) Jagr is available for the right deal.