3 reason why Gabriel Landeskog can’t retire from the Colorado Avalanche even if he wanted to
Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog has recently shut down retirement rumors. But there's far more to it than his willingness and desire to get back onto the ice.
Rumors have persisted regarding Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog’s potential retirement. While Landeskog has categorically denied the rumors, question marks surround the injured Avs’ captain.
My colleague Graham Tiedtke went into detail on the specific nature of those rumors in this interesting piece. So, my aim in this article is to explore why Landeskog can’t retire even if he
wanted to. Here are three reasons for this claim and they go beyond purely financial issues.
3 reasons why Gabe Landeskog can’t retire even if he wanted to
Landeskog would leave money on the table
In essence, retirement would mean leaving millions of dollars on the table for Landeskog.
Now, let’s be clear. This isn’t about a greedy player looking to get paid for nothing. Standard NHL contracts contain provisions for these types of situations. That is why teams must do their due
diligence before signing players to multi-year deals.
When Landeskog signed his eight-year extension in 2021, there was no indication his knees would be injured so badly to the point where he couldn’t play for two full seasons. As such, the Avalanche signed their captain to a max-term deal, keeping him in the fold for the foreseeable future.
But when Landeskog got hurt at some point in 2022, he played through the injury to the point where surgery was needed to repair the damage. He missed the entire 2022-23 season, hoping to get back
the following year.
When he also missed the entire 2023-24 season, rumors picked up about his retirement. But here’s the deal: Current NHL contracts are designed to ensure players aren’t forced to walk away from them. If they do, it would set off a series of legal implications.
These provisions were put into place to protect players. That protection implies that players can’t coerced into retiring or blackballed until they walk away from their contracts. If a player retires, both the team and the player must agree to terminate the deal.
That agreement implies the team terminates the contract, not the player. But that termination requires a justifiable cause, which a player’s retirement is not. It’s not like a justifiable breach of
contract such was Corey Perry’s situation with the Chicago Blackhawks last season.
Retirement is not a cause for termination, which means that the player is punished by leaving money on the table, while the team remains on the hook for the contract even though the player is
officially retired.
The dreaded Cap Recapture Penalty
Another provision put into place to protect players is the Cap Recapture Penalty. This rule states that teams cannot wipe a player’s contract off the books if he retires while his contract is still valid. In other words, if a player retires mid-contract, the team still has to carry that player’s cap hit for a specified period, that is, the remaining years of the player’s deal.
The amount of the Cap Recapture Penalty varies according to individual cases. A good example is Roberto Luongo’s premature retirement. PuckPedia has a wonderfully detailed explanation on the
matter here. In Luongo’s case, the Cap Recapture Penalty amounted to over $12 million due to the difference between the amount paid and the amount still owed.
The Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers shared the Cap Recapture Penalty for three seasons as Luongo retired with three years left on his contract. Both clubs split Luongo’s $5.33 million cap hit over three years, with the Panthers on the hook for more than $3 million per season.
So, let’s crunch some numbers for Landeskog. His total deal was set for eight years, $56 million with an AAV of $7 million per season. Landeskog is currently entering the fourth year of the deal. So, that means the Avs have paid out three years or $21 million. That would leave $35 million of which the Avalanche would be on the hook for.
Thus, the Avs would be stuck with $35 million of dead cap space for the next five seasons. That would mean roughly $7 million per season in dead cap space that can’t be used and can’t be moved to LTIR. While the Avs don’t have to pay Landeskog a dime, they have a ton of dead cap space that can’t be used for anything else.
In short, the Avs are better off paying Landeskog to spend time with his family and work out than deal with dead cap space. It’s a win-win for everyone.
There are insurance implications
Now, here’s something that might surprise quite a few readers. It certainly surprised me. When players are put on IR or LTIR, teams don’t actually pay their salaries. It’s the team’s and player’s
insurance policies that cover those player salaries.
Look at it this way. When someone is hurt on the job, worker’s compensation takes care of them. The company doesn’t actually pay out those benefits. It’s the worker’s compensation policy that does it.
It’s the same for NHL players. That is why team’s never disclose specifics of player injuries. Insurers want to keep disclosure to a minimum for confidentiality purposes. After all, would you like your neighbors to know your medical records if you were hurt on the job? Most likely, you’d be happy telling your neighbors you had a workplace-related incident and leave it at that.
So, if Landeskog retires, it would become an issue for the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche, and Landeskog with insurance companies. Any sort of issues may arise, including charges on all sides, premium increases, and even potential rifts between teams and insurers.
As you can see, Landeskog retiring would open up a huge can of worms for everyone involved. It’s just better for the Avs to let the insurance pay for Landeskog while he’s on LTIR. In fact, that’s the reason why LTIR exists. Since team’s don’t actually pay player’s salaries while on LTIR, teams can use those funds to pay other players.
Ultimately, it’s a business decision that compels Landeskog and the Avalanche to keep him technically active. It’s the reason why Shea Weber is currently a member of the Utah Hockey Club even though he was deemed unfit to play ever again after the 2021 season.
The easiest path to go would be to keep Landeskog on LTIR until his deal expires in 2029. It wouldn’t cost the Avs a dime, Landeskog gets paid, and the team can use the cap space to help the team.
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