What Will Happen to Jiri Hudler?
July 31, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Detroit Red Wings, NHL, News, Signings and Contracts
This whole Jiri Hudler drama gets more interesting by the day and I just don’t see why this hasn’t been resolved. Clearly he knew he was still contractually obligated to the Detroit Red Wings when he signed with the KHL team, Dynamo Moscow, since he filed for arbitration.
image: TSN
First the NHL informed the IIHF about their investigation into the issue and despite all of this, the KHL has officially registered Hudler’s contract which is worth $10 million for two years. He had been offered a five year deal worth $3 million with the Wings. I realize that’s it’s pretty much a no-brainer to want to go with the bigger offer but you can’t just pick up and leave a team that you have a contract with.
With an offer like that, the Wings can’t value him too highly anyway so I don’t understand why they don’t just let him go. I wouldn’t want to keep a player who didn’t want to be on the team. I do think they could have given him a bigger contract, though. He had his best season last year (23 goals and 34 assists) and he was part of the team when the Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2008. I’m not saying he’s necessarily worth the $5 million per season that the KHL is offering but I think $3 million for five years is a little low.
