| Isles
Sign DiPietro for 15 Years |
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John Naposki |
Staff Writer
September 12, 2006
You seriously have to wonder what's going on in Long Island when Islanders' management signs a player to a 15-year contract that's guaranteed even if the player retires due to injury.
But that's exactly what the New York Islanders did when they signed goalie Rick DiPietro to a new 15-year deal.
The contract pays DiPietro $67.5 million over the next 15 years, a payout of $4.5 million per season through 2021.
Dollar-wise, it's not a terrible deal. DiPietro had a winning record last season and 30 of the Islanders 36 wins in his 61 games played.
Not too terribly far off from Tomas Vokoun's 36 wins in his 61 games with the much better Nashville Predators.
The huge question mark, of course, comes back to the fact that the contract is guaranteed even if DiPietro is forced to retire due to injury.
If DiPietro ends his career otherwise before the deal expires, he would forfeit the remaining dollars of the contract.
Even still, you have to question the sanity of the injury guarantee, especially since it has the potential to chew up a lot of cap space -- for many, many years -- on a potentially vacant roster spot.
DiPietro is still young and has plenty of potential, so the deal could turn out to be a bargain for the Islanders
provided DiPietro stays healthy and performs well till he's 40.
But no sane person can say the deal was worth the risk the Islanders took with the injury
guarantee the contract contains.
Hats off to DiPietro's agent. As for the Islanders, it looks to be another questionable move in a long running series of shaky moves (can anyone say Olli Jokien and Roberto Luongo to Florida in exchange for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha?). |
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