EHM The Blue Line

First off, sorry for posting two new topics in a row, but this is worth it. I'm in the playoffs, about to go into the third round vs. Calgary, and i decided to look at some free agents available just for the heck of it. So I sort them by Reputation, and see two 'Superbs' at the top, one of course being Dion Phaneuf. Now he's only 25, and I don't remember seeing him holding out for a bigger contract or anything, so i wondered what the deal was.

I check his stats, he played that season for the flames. Scored 49 points in 59 games. So I check his History, then look at "News", and at the very top, the date is 3/1/2010, and the headline is "Released to Free Agency". So apparently, the contract he signed, was only good until March, when he was released to free agency. I went as far as "offer this contract to Dion Phaneuf?" and said NO...Never once did I see that I would have to give something up to sign him, so I'm assuming he's a UFA for whatever reason.

Pretty lame bug, but the Flames still made it to the conference finals.

It wasn't an oddly time contract; they simply bought him out and he became a Free Agent as any bought out player does.

Currently you get no messages about such a transaction so yeah it will slip past you; usually teams have waived the player at least once before doing this though. I've seen it happen mostly with high salary players and you figure it out as some time in March you get a message that a player who used to be making 4.5 a year with Team A has signed a deal with Team B for 2.1 for 2 years or something and you get a kind of look on your face...

Even more comical: I just ended the season, had the awards handed out, and Phaneuf came in second for the Norris Trophy, even though he only played 59 games lol