The Calgary Flames have a glaring issue in their forward group and it’s Jonathan Huberdeau. On a virtually immovable contract that pays him $10.5 million per season until the end of 2030–31, the Flames are virtually tied at the hip to the Canadian winger. Huberdeau recorded the greatest drop off in points season-over-season last year and is somehow on pace to put up even fewer points this season than last. While he does have a goal and an assist in his last two games, he has still looked like a shadow of the player he was in Florida.
The discontent with Huberdeau is mounting. After implying heavily that the Flames’ style under Darryl Sutter did not match his style and Sutter’s departure from the team, the expectation was that the Flames would see a resurgence from him, but alas that has simply not come. Comments across the internet have been vastly negative about his performance, with calls for him to be benched, bought out, sent down to the AHL, or fired, it’s worth exploring exactly what the Flames can and cannot do with Huberdeau.
What the Calgary Flames simply cannot do with Huberdeau
First of all, some things literally can not happen. Not in yesterday’s NHL, today’s NHL, and likely never in the future either.
Renegotiate Huberdeau’s contract
For better or for worse, the Calgary Flames are not able to renegotiate Huberdeau’s contract. NHL contracts are guaranteed contracts, which means that regardless of how a player performs, they are guaranteed to receive the amount owed. The NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) prohibits renegotiating player contracts.
Fire Huberdeau outright
No, the Flames cannot fire Huberdeau. He’s a contractor, not an employee, and that’s not how contracts work.
What the Calgary Flames can only do with Huberdeau’s consent
With Huberdeau’s contract, he has protections. There are moves that can be made but he has to agree.
Trade Huberdeau
Because Huberdeau has a full no-movement clause, the Flames are not able to trade him or move him in any way without his consent. Of course, if he says he wants to move to another team and the other team is willing to take on part or all of that contract, the Flames can negotiate that. His value has dropped off dramatically so the cost to move him will be very expensive.
Put Huberdeau on waivers
Ditto above, the Flames cannot put him on waivers to be claimed by another team without his consent a la the NMC.
Send Huberdeau down to the AHL
One more time, the no-movement clause means that he cannot be moved even within the organization to the AHL affiliate without his consent. This simply will not happen.
Expose him in an expansion draft
While there currently is not any indication of a 33rd NHL team coming any time soon, if there is one in Huberdeau’s tenure with the Flames, they would need to protect him due to his NMC. Even if somehow Huberdeau allowed the Flames to expose him, it is unlikely that a new team would claim him.
Terminate his contract
This one is slightly trickier than it looks. NHL contracts can be terminated if both the player and the team agree to terminate the contract. A handful of contracts are terminated this way each year, but these are typically younger players who want to play in Europe or Russia so the team and player agree to terminate the contract for this reason. Patrik Berglund comes to mind, who walked away from around $13 million to play in Sweden. His contract was mutually terminated by the Buffalo Sabres.
Players can also have their contracts terminated for a material breach, which is a fancy way of saying they seriously violated their contract. This includes items of player training or conduct or inability to render services, such as refusing to play. No, this does not mean if Huberdeau plays badly, but rather if he refuses to take the ice. Corey Perry, Alex Galchenyuk, and Mike Richards have all had their contracts terminated this way. In these cases, players are owed what was due to them up to the point where they were served with notice of a contract termination for a material breach. The NHLPA often gets involved in these cases as they want to limit the use of this provision to protect the interest of the players. Barring something seriously untoward happening with Huberdeau, the odds of him being terminated on these grounds are very low.
What the Flames can actually do with Huberdeau
Buy Huberdeau out
The Flames technically can buy him out, but the odds of this happening are slim to none. Huberdeau’s contract is riddled with singing bonuses, which need to be paid each season. The Flames would not see significant savings in the term of the contract plus being on the hook for nearly a million dollars a season from 2031–32 to 2037–38. The below image from CapFriendly outlines the impact of a buyout:
Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely given the cost and the team’s unwillingness to spend money outside of the cap? Very, very unlikely.
Ask him to retire
While they cannot technically force Huberdeau to retire, there is a possibility (albeit very very remote) that Huberdeau retires. However, if he does retire, he will forfeit the balance of his salary and the Flames will be able to reallocate his cap hit to other players. Given he appears to be reasonably healthy and able to play hockey (albeit not at the level that his contract may expect), the odds of this happening are basically zero right now.
Scratch him
While Huberdeau has looked better of late, his production has been weak relative to his pay. The Flames are able to scratch him—should they wish—but the challenge is that even if he has been quite bad, he has been far from the team’s worst forward. It would look very awkward if the Flames scratched Huberdeau and let Dillon Dube, Andrew Mangiapane, Walker Duehr, Elias Lindholm, or others continue to remain in the lineup.
Bench him
The Flames have done this a few times already, most notably in their come-from-behind win over the Nashville Predators on November 7 where he was benched for the whole third period. This tactic did work, as his play improved following this benching. The challenge is that this works once or twice as a motivating tactic. If you continue doing this to a player, you risk him becoming disillusioned and simply giving up. While the team shouldn’t bench him at the risk of him giving up, they should employ this tactic carefully.
Try to make it work with him
This seems to be the route the team is taking. Given the lack of options with Huberdeau as well as how far his market value has dropped relative to his contract, the easiest path forward is to try to make it work with him. They tried playing him on a reliable combination with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, hoping to give him the famed “Backlund Bump”, but have since put him with Yegor Sharangivich and Elias Lindholm, which has yielded better results.
The team has 11 other forwards on the ice at any given time, and they need to do whatever they can to spark Huberdeau. Without the ability to trade him, waive him, or send him to the Calgary Wranglers, the team simply has no other option but to make it work. If they don’t, it’s going to be a very long next seven and a half years.
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