Saturday, 11:00am: Dotchin has cleared waivers, Smith reports.
Friday, 4:15pm: Smith reports this afternoon that the agent for Dotchin will look at any available option to appeal the decision to terminate his contract. Dotchin’s camp apparently “respectfully disagree” with the decision. There is definitely more to come in this story.
11:11am: It wasn’t so long ago that Jake Dotchin was an up and coming young defender for the Tampa Bay Lightning, with high hopes given the lack of options on the right side. Today, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Dotchin has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract. Joe Smith of The Athletic reports the transaction has been made due to a “material breach” of Dotchin’s contract, though doesn’t go into specifics on what has occurred. The Lightning will not comment further, though Friedman adds that the team was “unhappy with Dotchin’s conditioning at arrival” for their training camp.
Dotchin, 24, looked like he might solidify himself as Victor Hedman‘s partner at the end of 2016-17, when he played 35 games in the second half of the season and saw his ice time increase to over 20 minutes a night at times. That number dropped back down last year in just 48 contests, and now Dotchin will have to find himself another job in another organization. If his contract is terminated tomorrow as expected, he will be an unrestricted free agent and able to sign with any team in the league.
There was just one year remaining on Dotchin’s contract that would have paid him $925K this season, but there wasn’t even a guaranteed role on the blue line given the additions Tampa Bay has made over the last year. Mikhail Sergachev and Ryan McDonagh are both set to eat up huge minutes this season while Dan Girardi will still be a full-time option for the club.
unless he failed a drug test, someone will pick him up quick. young right handed d man who could still turn it around
Well if his contract gets terminated, I hope the hawks get him. Still young with upside, and he’s a right handed shot that can replace Murphy who’s out until at least November
That’s a possibility.
Or he came way out of shape with a high BMI – in that case, it will take a while for him to convince a team that he is committed
not as much as you think. scarcity in right handed d man likely will have a team question him and take the chance. even if it’s Just a pto
It wasn’t the out-of-shape thing that some of you might be thinking because of the wording in the report. Just this morning, I walked into the locker room that we normally use for my Friday morning invite hockey but the lightning are using it for the overflow players in camp, and he was the first one in there and he wasn’t *visibly* out of shape. In fact he looked quite trim and strong. It could be related to the motorcycle thing that earned him a team suspension last year.
So maybe he showed up on his Bike. That’s a way better reason to terminate his contract…
/sarcasm
maybe the “material breach” had to do with his jersey and the team was unhappy with the fabric conditioner he was using.