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HOLDING OUT NO HOPE
Originally posted September 3, 1999: Volume 2, Issue 1

With NHL camps opening around North America, one player has decided that he will not deign to attend. Ottawa Senators superstar Alexei Yashin has announced that he will not honour the remainder of his contract. Yashin and his agent Mark Gandler want the Senators to tear up his five year contract (which has one year remaining at 3.6 million U.S. dollars) and negotiate a new one. This is the third time in six years that Yashin has put a gun to his team's head during the term of his contract.

Senator fans are fed up with their enigmatic captain. One group of season ticket holders has threatened to sue if Yashin breaches his contract with Ottawa and -- by extension -- with them. It is not likely they will succeed, but the threat clearly expresses the pent-up frustration that the Ottawa faithful are feeling. The team has had financial difficulties in recent years owing to a small market, weak Canadian dollar and high property taxes. Owner Rod Bryden has threatened to move the team south unless it is relieved of its substantial tax burden. Now, even Captain Fantastic may be taking his act elsewhere.

Yashin shoots for dollars
It is not a surprise that the fans fully support Marshall Johnston as he faces his first true test as Ottawa's rookie General Manager. He has taken the expected and proper position that Ottawa will negotiate with Yashin at the conclusion of the 1999-2000 playoffs.

Without a doubt, Yashin is one of the premier players in the National Hockey League. Without a doubt, he is likely "worth" -- in a strictly market sense of the word -- substantially more than what Ottawa is obliged to pay him. Players of similar talent -- Mats Sundin, Pavel Bure, Theo Fleury -- are making in the range of $7 million to $8.5 million per season.

Alexei is sitting
That, unfortunately for Yashin and Gandler, is not the point. The present situation raises questions about the understanding that athletes have of the obligations they assume when they sign on the dotted line of a contract. There are a few realities worth noting. No team puts a gun to a player's head to sign a deal. Teams do not seek to renegotiate a deal mid-term solely on the basis that the player is worth less than at the time he signed the contract.

A player who signs a long-term deal makes a conscious decision. He opts to sacrifice risk in favour of security. He ensures that he is protected in the event that his performance wanes in the future. If that happens, he does not lose financially as a result. On the other hand, he gives up any increased market value that would accrue should his performance improve. That is the choice the athlete makes when he signs a contract.

Captain in conflict
Young Mr. Yashin, who grew up in Soviet Russia, may not be well schooled in the fundamentals of the market. That does not explain the behaviour of his agent, however.

The demand to renegotiate a contract is becoming all too common in modern sports. Obviously, if a team is willing to renegotiate, there is no problem. But it should be made quite clear that a team is not obligated to renegotiate a contract in mid-term. If the team refuses to do so, as Ottawa has, the player must live with it, because that was the choice he made when he signed the contract. Fortunately, there remain athletes who understand what it means voluntarily to sign a contract. Lance Pitlick, defenceman for the Florida Panthers and former Yashin teammate in Ottawa, told the Ottawa Sun:

"You sign a contract and you should honour it. If Yash would have had a bad year, the team wouldn't have gone to him and asked him to take a cut. It's not right. If you want the security of a long-term deal, you've got to play it out."

Alexei turns his back
on Ottawa
Teemu Selanne -- who at $5.5 million this year and $4.75 million last season might also command more on an open market -- recently made a similar statement when asked if he was considering asking the Mighty Ducks to renegotiate his contract.

This is not a situation where there is an imbalance of economic power in favour of the employer. Professional athletes generally have considerable bargaining power, and are thus immune to the realities of the working world. This is especially so compared to the average fan, for whom "job security" is but a fantasy. Yashin and his agent, by entering into a long-term contract, created the very situation against which they now rebel. It is a sad spectacle. One feels sorry only for the Senators, a team whose woes off the ice continue. Let us hope that they will stand firm and refuse to renegotiate with, or trade, their former captain.

Photographs by Hockey.Ontheweb.