Bettman, Daly Back Golden Knights in Cassidy Controversy
· Yahoo Sports
The Vegas Golden Knights are the shining stars of the entertainment capital of the world, and they’ve been the talk of the town for the last two months. Of course, most of the headlines pertain to their postseason success— after largely failing to live up to their potential during the regular season, the Golden Knights caught fire at the right time and advanced to their third Stanley Cup Final in their nine-year existence.
Visit rocore.sbs for more information.
However, the Golden Knights have also made some noise because of the way they’ve handled Bruce Cassidy after their late-season coaching change.
Despite relieving Cassidy of his duties as head coach, the Golden Knights are still on the hook to pay him nearly $5 million. Cassidy signed a five-year contract in 2022 that won’t expire until after the 2026-27 season.
Because Vegas is paying Cassidy his full salary, they have complete control over his employment status for the next year. Cassidy has garnered interest around the league— namely from two division rivals, the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings— but Vegas has not granted teams permission to speak with him.
During a media availability prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, the NHL passed its ruling in the case of Cassidy v. Vegas Golden Knights.
“Obviously, we don’t find it unreasonable, because we’re allowing it to happen,” said deputy commissioner Bill Daly. “I do think Vegas is clearly within their contractual rights to do what they’re doing. We understand and appreciate that they’re on a Stanley Cup run right now, and they don’t need the distraction necessarily… We’ll get to the end of the season, and we’ll see where we go from there.
“We’ve talked to all the parties involved in this, including Bruce. So he knows what our position on the subject is, and he might not be happy about it, but he was accepting of it.”
“When you sign and insist upon a long-term contract, there are certainly, under league policies, consequences of that,” agreed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “And so, where we find ourselves is completely reasonable.”
“There are contracts that exist in the league that would not allow for this to happen,” added Daly. “His was not one of them.”