Jul 6: As expected, Zadina is on the waiver wire today for the purposes of mutual contract termination, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He’s joined by New York Islanders farmhand Andy Andreoff, who had one season left on a two-way contract.
Jul 5: The Detroit Red Wings are expected to place 2018 sixth-overall pick Filip Zadina on waivers again tomorrow, this time for the purpose of terminating his contract, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
There’s little reason to believe anyone would issue a claim if Detroit does opt to go the contract termination route, considering Zadina cleared just yesterday and was made available to all 31 teams via trade – yet he remains a Red Wing today.
The reason for that isn’t necessarily that no one wants to take him on as a reclamation project. It’s the financial commitment that comes with him – he’s got two seasons remaining on a backloaded $1.825MM AAV contract that would result in a costly gamble for a team claiming him if it doesn’t pan out. In real cash, he’s owed $4.56MM over the next two seasons.
It’s money that Zadina could willing to walk away from entirely to have a better chance of a successful NHL career, says Friedman. Although Zadina’s agent, Darren Ferris, declined to comment on the matter, Friedman’s reporting suggests Zadina has made it clear he would not report if assigned to the AHL next season, which would violate his contract and result in suspension without pay.
With both Zadina and Detroit cleared of any contractual obligation to each other, he would then be free to sign with any team in the league – giving him full control over his destiny, at least among the teams interested in adding him. Zadina had already requested a trade before the draft, which Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman expressed earlier in the week, but again cited Zadina’s contract as a significant obstacle in moving him.
Yzerman had expressed his reluctance to put Zadina on waivers, considering he’d signed the winger to a three-year contract just a year ago with the belief that he would continue to develop. It didn’t happen this season, as he posted just seven points in 30 games and averaged 13:05 per game.
All that being said, it’s fair to speculate now which teams could have interest in picking up the Czech-born winger, and where he could have success and ultimately develop into the top-six (or top-nine, at this point) forward he was projected to be.
Somewhat ironically, Zadina has some history with two teams that could make sense. Before falling to Detroit at sixth overall at the 2018 Draft, Zadina said regarding two teams, the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators, that “if they will pass on me, I’m going to fill their nets with pucks.” Montreal selected Jesperi Kotkaniemi third overall, while Ottawa selected now-captain Brady Tkachuk with the fourth selection. Both teams are looking to add some forward depth today, and Montreal has displayed a liking to taking on reclamation projects in recent years (Kirby Dach, Denis Gurianov, Alex Newhook).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
contradicts what Yzerman said the other day. Maybe agent/player wants nothing to do with Red Wings and asked for this ??
Awesome
He must have a deal in Europe. It’s the most likely scenario for termination or voiding of contract. Wings would get this CAP room back I think.
They would clear his cap hit, yes. Article was just updated (apologies it took a while to parse through), but Zadina wouldn’t have seen the money due to him anyways if he refused to report to an AHL assignment – likely would have been suspended without pay in that scenario. Agreeing to a contract termination and walking away from the money allows him to get a head start with another NHL organization instead of sitting in limbo.
My guess is he would be paid more in Europe than with a new NHL team. I don’t see any NHL team giving him more than 1 million. He may get more in Europe. Terminating with Detroit will not play well with many other GM’s
Doubtful. He’s going to be paid by Detroit regardless, and most European teams don’t pay anything close to even a lower-level NHL contract. Detroit terminated his contract, not the other way around. Someone else will give him a chance in the NHL, he still has NHL size and skills, if not the desire.
It’s a mutual termination. He’s not seeing any further money from Detroit. He’s walking away from his 2023-24 and 2024-25 salary entirely, and he’ll have no cap hit for DET.
Must be nice to just be able to leave millions of dollars on the table
Teams don’t terminate contracts. They can waive you or buy you out. The player has to request termination and the team affirms it from their side. In fact, the buyout process was essentially instituted to ensure teams can’t arbitrarily terminate contracts.
No chance the Habs pick him up. They have an overabundance of young forwards as it is. They don’t need one who’s as unproductive as he’s been.
In any event, while Zadina is certainly a reclamation project, Dach and Newhook certainly are not. They’re both young players who’ve had some impact in the NHL but who haven’t hit their stride yet. Newhook has two 30-point seasons playing 13 minutes per game with a stacked Avs team. Dach had 27 points in 70 games his last year with a poor Hawks team before the Habs picked him up. They certainly hadn’t yet provided top line production, but they’ve not looked out of place yet and are trending upward. Unlike Gurianov (a reclamation project who didn’t work out) and Zadina (a reclamation project the Habs aren’t touching), their teams got fair value in return.
Good luck Filip! Enjoy filling KHL nets with pucks!
Yea I agree, the Habs are looking to get ride of at least 1 forward and likely 2 as it is. I’m sure some team would bite on Hoffman at the trade deadline with 50% retained as long as he gets some scoring touch back. They likely want to get him off the book before the year tho. I’d like to see a Gallagher for Gibson swap and then the Habs trade Allen, That makes the most sense to me
Excellent points
What a garbage pick, guess other teams saw something which is why he dropped in the draft that year
All the best to him back home that’s where I would be heading…some guys just don’t pan out..Great on Yzerman for giving him a chance elsewhere..
I’m sure Yzerman was also motivated by getting out from under his $1.8 million cap hit and the $4.6 million actual dollars he will no longer owe Zadina.
Bruins?
We have openings on the wing. He can hang around with Pasta and Zacha.
(smirks) Not that with 28 career goals it took more than a couple minutes with HR’s scoring logs, but in his career to date, Zadina’s never scored against Ottawa, and has just a single goal against the Habs. Maybe he meant filling the net with pucks playing NHL 18 on his Playstation?
Edmonton should be required to sign him. Holland saw something no one else did
He has a nice slap shot but lacks the speed and skill to deploy it effectively at the NHL level.
Sens and Habs clearly made the right choice in their draft picks, they are progressing. Wings not so much on this guy.
If he’d have been anywhere nearly as productive as the Sens and Habs picks, he’d be skating out his contract with the Wings instead of sounding like a petulant child who didn’t get his participation trophy.
Cutting Zadina is long overdue, Fabbri is the next headache that should be gone, He takes up space and money and rarely sees the ice, Except for the Hronek head scratcher Yzerman has done well as GM in Detroit.
Fabbri gets injured one more time and IMO it’s LTIR for him. No one can keep sustaining these leg surgeries.
got a 1st round for him. Can’t turn that down. It did come out of the blue. Younger D coming up hopefully !
And who was the 8th overall pick in the 18 draft right behind Zadudo! Quinn Hughes! That stings!!!!!!!