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shutehinside · 11-29-2010, 09:37 AM

Let me start by saying that I don't believe Gomez will be traded or bought out. That being said the only option the Habs have with ANY contract is 3 fold:

1) Trade
2) Buy out
3) Demotion (assuming no NMC is in effect)

Of the 3 options, all are available in Gomez's case so lets discuss each.

Trade. This in my opinion is the most likely of all the options. Even though Gomez has a high salary cap hit, this is only bad for teams who are close to the cap ceiling. Other teams struggle to get to the minimum amount every year and this is where Gomez is most valuable. His cap hit is $7+ M but his actual salary is diminishing in the final years of his contract. Because most of his contract has already been paid, it allows the lower income team to get closer to the cap floor without actually adding much more salary. There are more and more teams in this category as the cap continues to rise each year. Even if we don't get much, we'd still get rid of him and allow us to sign a player at the same cap hit but hopefully with more production.

Buy Out. This is another possible route available to the Habs. I would think that were we are right now and with several years left on Gomez's contract that this is less likely to happen. It's very rare when a team will buy out a player with multiple years of contract is left. In fact, there's only a hand full of examples, less so of larger contracts, Yashin says hi! This may be an option if Gomez continues to underperform and more importantly, if his attitude becomes detrimental to the teams performance. There's plenty of examples of players who sucked but were kept around because they were good team guys as well as the opposite where there were players who were seen as a cancer and traded for a bag of pucks. As long as Gomez doesn't become a distraction to the team and still has multiple years left on his contract, then I don't see this happening.

Demotion. This is IMO the least likely of the options available. Montreal is too classy an organization to do this and don't have a hostory of doing this. Gomez is more likely to sit in the press box for a year then play in Hamilton. This is by far the least likely to occur IMO.

11-29-2010, 09:37 AM	#48
shutehinside Registered User Join Date: Sep 2006 Country: Posts: 5,068 vCash: 500	Let me start by saying that I don't believe Gomez will be traded or bought out. That being said the only option the Habs have with ANY contract is 3 fold: 1) Trade 2) Buy out 3) Demotion (assuming no NMC is in effect) Of the 3 options, all are available in Gomez's case so lets discuss each. Trade. This in my opinion is the most likely of all the options. Even though Gomez has a high salary cap hit, this is only bad for teams who are close to the cap ceiling. Other teams struggle to get to the minimum amount every year and this is where Gomez is most valuable. His cap hit is $7+ M but his actual salary is diminishing in the final years of his contract. Because most of his contract has already been paid, it allows the lower income team to get closer to the cap floor without actually adding much more salary. There are more and more teams in this category as the cap continues to rise each year. Even if we don't get much, we'd still get rid of him and allow us to sign a player at the same cap hit but hopefully with more production. Buy Out. This is another possible route available to the Habs. I would think that were we are right now and with several years left on Gomez's contract that this is less likely to happen. It's very rare when a team will buy out a player with multiple years of contract is left. In fact, there's only a hand full of examples, less so of larger contracts, Yashin says hi! This may be an option if Gomez continues to underperform and more importantly, if his attitude becomes detrimental to the teams performance. There's plenty of examples of players who sucked but were kept around because they were good team guys as well as the opposite where there were players who were seen as a cancer and traded for a bag of pucks. As long as Gomez doesn't become a distraction to the team and still has multiple years left on his contract, then I don't see this happening. Demotion. This is IMO the least likely of the options available. Montreal is too classy an organization to do this and don't have a hostory of doing this. Gomez is more likely to sit in the press box for a year then play in Hamilton. This is by far the least likely to occur IMO.