September 16: After seeing his contract terminated, Kotkov is headed back to the KHL as expected. The young forward has signed a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow of the KHL. An unrestricted free agent, if he ever wants to return to North America he will not be limited to the Sharks.
September 11: The Sharks are parting ways with one of their prospects as Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now reports (Twitter link) that they have placed winger Vladislav Kotkov on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination.
The 21-year-old went undrafted in 2018 but did well enough as an invite to San Jose’s development camp to earn an entry-level deal just two weeks after the draft. He spent last season playing his final year in the QMJHL, notching nine goals and ten assists in 16 games with Saint John while chipping in with four assists in five playoff contests. Kotkov also got into one AHL playoff game with the Barracuda.
With two years remaining on his contract, this news is a little surprising as Kotkov is still young enough to be considered a viable NHL prospect and with just two career AHL contests under his belt, it’s not as if he has played enough for San Jose to give up on him. Speculatively, there may be an offer waiting for him back home and if San Jose, who is fairly tight to the 50-contract limit once expected slides are factored in, didn’t want to loan him to play overseas where he’d still count against the limit, then this course of action makes sense. If Kotkov passes through unclaimed, the Sharks will be able to terminate his contract on Sunday.
When a contract is terminated in this fashion is the player still paid like MLB or is he simply out of luck like the NFL?
No money involved. Clean break.
So I assume he must agree to it similar to the DeAngelo situation where he didn’t agree.
Thanks very much.
@backhandinbaptist – I would swear that I read the initial report of this as “mutual contract termination”, but for the few hits I had the patience to read through a couple of minutes ago, the word “mutual” is absent. This includes CapFriendly and Elliotte’s page, as well as Sheng’s. So, I’d still go with mutual, until shown otherwise. Late add – PuckPedia specifies “mutual”, not that any of us are that interested anymore…
Thanks Mac. I guess what I’m really asking is can a team just terminate a contract without the player’s consent? I would assume that makes the point of a contract moot if they could but and using DeAngelo as a similar but opposite example. But maybe it differs with entry level deals?
@backhandinbaptist – I think they would need that old “Just Cause” thing for the one-way termination, which usually involves documentation of stuff that could be deemed breach of contract, or criminal acts, or damaging the team’s image in a way that would be co-enforced by the NHL (just to name a few). This is almost a weekly occurrence during the regular season, but it seems a bit weird to see it ramping up in the off-season. Usually you hear that the player isn’t satisfied with the ice time he’s (not) getting, or that he thinks he can develop with another organization better than the one he’s stuck in. And, of course, the lure of potentially playing in the NHL, as “promised” by scouts, agents, or GMs, goes south, thereby leaving the player at the freeway exit called “Disenchantment.” It doesn’t seem to be strictly ELCs, but seems more so, than say a guy who has been in the league a few years that is buried in the minors and thinks he should be playing with the big club. And, sometimes we actually can find a reason for the termination, instead of having to guess, like we are now.