RealGM

Remember the Sabres offered him an extension in 2013 that would have made him the highest paid nhl player at the time - a cap hit higher that Ovechkin/Malkin's 9.5M - the term offered was never disclosed but he still turned it down and got traded to the islanders. Then he excelled with the islanders playing alongside Tavares and Okoposo which was the most productive line in the nhl at the time and they offered him 7 years 50M and he rejected that and was dealt to Montreal where he flopped. His ultimate goal was to play in Minnesota which was his home where he met his wife and won an ncaa title in college hockey - taking a steep discount at age 30 of 3 years 19.5M only to be hobbled by injuries and bought out 2 seasons later. Since then he has bounced from Detroit to Florida and now Vancouver for pennies compared to what he was worth or better yet guaranteed in his hey day.

There are reports he has a gambling problem and it looks like it has extended to his career where he gambled on himself and colossally flopped at least $30M worth.

Sam195 wrote:Remember the Sabres offered him an extension in 2013 that would have made him the highest paid nhl player at the time - a cap hit higher that Ovechkin/Malkin's 9.5M - the term offered was never disclosed but he still turned it down

I'm a season ticket holder in Buffalo and don't remember this at all -- link?

2013 was the start of the rebuild, why would they make him any offer?

Neither side was interested in extending to my recollection, same situation as Ryan Miller

They can use all the help they can get at this point