Chris Kreider carried a $6.5M cap hit yesterday. Today, teams can pursue his 22 goals and 50 points without giving Anaheim a single asset.
Kreider was surprisingly placed on waivers for the purposes of contract termination by the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday as they look to clear space. Not only that, they want to give Kreider a chance to head back East where his family is after he expressed a desire to return.
Kreider forfeited $4 million rather than let a team claim him
It's a great bit of mutual business, as Kreider gets the chance to go home meanwhile the Ducks are able to get out from under his $6.5M contract. Well, as the 2PM deadline hit on Thursday, no one had claimed Kreider off waivers, therefore allowing him to be terminated and hit free agency:
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Kreider, 35, put up 50 points last season with the Ducks after being acquired last summer from the Rangers in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick (Artyom Gonchar) and prospect Carey Terrance.
The Massachusetts native has recorded 348 goals and 632 points in his 14-year career, with all of it being spent with the Rangers prior to last summer's trade.
Kreider also forgoes quite a bit of salary in his final season at $4M (base salary) though with his desire to head East, he was willing to lose money to avoid the risk of being picked up by a team he doesn't want, and his no-trade made things even harder.
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For Toronto, a 22-goal winger is now available without a trade or a pick - but with all 50 contract slots full and no cap room, the Maple Leafs would have to move salary out before they could move him in.
Cutter Gauthier's next contract is the reason this happened now
Despite the Ducks claiming otherwise, there is a correlation between Kreider leaving town and the team's current RFA situation. After signing both Leo Carlsson and Pavel Mintyukov to mega-deals and buy free agency years - they have to do with Gauthier.
Word and rumour has put Gauthier's next contract in the same range as Carlsson's; perhaps slightly lower. Even at the lowest end, you're looking at potentially a $16M or $17M per year contract. There's no way the Ducks could afford to keep Kreider with that looming, and kind of lucked out with him being so willing to work with them to facilitate a move.
The Ducks right now have just enough money to give Gauthier a big-time contract while also being able to be cap compliant, and at that point will have their three top stars locked up long-term, and no longer have to deal with Kreider and the potential he may regress or be less effective than last year.
Gauthier's future was too important for the Ducks and GM Pat Verbeek to overlook, and the cost of losing Kreider was far less than having to have a friction-filled negotiation period with one of their brightest stars.
Do you think the Maple Leafs should try and find space to sign Chris Kreider?
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