The Two-Line Pass

RDS and Bob MacKenzie are reporting that Nikolai Khabulin is officially on waivers.

Frankly, I’m surprised. I could have SWORN the Blackhawks were going to drop $12.375 million on goaltending and leave promising young netminder Anti Niemi up in the press box to eat all the popcorn he wants. That made a lot more sense.

This flies in the face of everything the Blackhawks have been saying all summer. The link’s dead now, but earlier in the summer, I found an article where Chicago GM Dale Tallon said he had no plans to move either goalie (not that Huet, who just signed this year, was ever in danger of that). In fact, just the other day, the Chicago Tribune ran an article headed “NIKOLAI KHABIBULIN AND CRISTOBAL HUET IN BATTLE FOR BLACKHAWKS GOALIE JOB.”

“We have two great goalies here,” Savard said. “We’re very fortunate to have both of them. The best is going to play every night.”

So all that was a lie. What this means, of course, is that Chicago finally wised up and is now in the process of ridding itself of an albatross contract that it never should have signed in the first place. But no one’s going to want Khabibulin, at least not for $6.75 million. This has to be the first step in the buyout process. The only thing I can’t believe is how long it took to get to this point. They had to have known there was no way this was a tenable situation, right? I mean, almost SEVEN million for Nik Khabibulin? Really? Why would Chicago put it off this long, and lie to its fans in the process? It doesn’t make any sense.

Serious question: Is this the biggest non-surprise of the offseason?

How I stop puck? (ow my hip)

Poor Dan Cloutier can’t catch a break.

First, and most obviously, he has spent the last two seasons posting hockey stats that would only make baseball players envious. His last two single-season goals-against averages (3.71) more closely resemble above-average baseball ERAs and his save percentages (.874) would be good OPSes for second basemen.

Then he got hurt and spent much of the year nursing knee and hip injuries. It was no surprise, then, that the Kings eventually put him on waivers with the intention of buying him out once he cleared. But there was a problem: Cloutier was still hurt. Under the newish CBA, you can’t buy out or waive an injured player.

The Kings bought him out anyway.

But Cloutier contended that he was still hurt, so the league was brought in to settle the dispute, and they unsurprisingly ruled that Cloutier was indeed bought out.

An independent arbitrator will hear this case — at some point in the indeterminate and assumedly semi-far-off future. I’m assuming Cloutier’s S.O.L. on this one, which is really too bad. He seems like a nice enough guy, awful goalie or not, and the Kings front office was the one that gave him his contract, truly one of the first big head-scratchers in the New NHL. The Kings should have to pay double his salary against the cap, just because of how stupid the deal was in the first place.

Shady dealings like this don’t bode well for the players down the road, that’s fore sure. Watch as Jeff Finger is mysteriously injured and bought out by this time next year.

I don't know what's going on in this picture

From traded with Oleg Kvasha for Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen to released by the Wild, it ain’t easy being Mark Parrish.

It’s really too bad. Had it not been for injuries and Jacques Lemaire’s seeming distaste for his game, he would have been worth the $2.6 million he was getting paid to score the 35-45 points he provides a year.

As I reported June 11, it was hard to see where Parrish fit in on this team. In that story, I mentioned that sources were telling me Doug Risebrough was offering him in a trade everywhere. I also mentioned buying out Parrish as a possibility. But I suggested the Wild would be smarter to put him on waivers in camp and then call him up on re-entry waivers so they save half the cap.

…

If Parrish is claimed, that team will incur his salary and cap hit. If he clears and the Wild indeed buys him out like I know it plans, it’ll have to pay 2/3 of his contract or $5,566,667.

Parrish scored 35 goals over two injury-shortened seasons in Minnesota, and at only 31, he might be worth the $1.3 million for the next three seasons. Someone will pick him up, I think, and I’d assume Minnesota is counting on it. Otherwise they’re on the hook for close to $1 million a year for the next six in his buyout.

Take your $2.76 million and beat it.

With yesterday’s signing of Dennis Wideman to a four-year deal that will pay him $3.875 million per, this was only a matter of time.

The Bruins are one step closer to, at long last, buying out Glen Murray.

The Bruins have placed Glen Murray on unconditional waivers, the first step of the buyout process.

Finally.

Murray has been a $4 million anchor almost from the moment he signed his deal nearly three years ago. For that low, low price, Murray has scored just 69 goals in 186 games over the past three seasons, all while not playing defense and being too slow to keep up with just about everyone. That’s down from 111 goals over the previous three seasons with Joe Thornton running Murray’s pivot.

Despite what should have been Murray’s leadership, the Bruins made the playoffs just once since he signed that contract (not entirely his fault, but the point remains), and when they did make the playoffs this year, he scored exactly 0 points in seven games.

The move will trim Murray’s cap hit from $4 million this year to just $1.383 over the next two. A more prudent move Peter Chiarelli could not have made.

I know fans are all atwitter in the Hub of Hockey for now, but beware. Michael Ryder at the same price might end up looking just as bad.