Rick DiPietro is a case against long contracts

Rick DiPietro was supposed to be the franchise in Long Island. Why else would management give him a 15 year, $60 million contract 5 years ago.

This season DiPietro is trying to come back after missing most of 2 seasons with knee injuries. Well the 7 goals given up in a game against Carolina the over night would suggest the comeback is going too well. In fact he's been pretty bad with a 4.21 goals against average and a .854 save percentage. Those are Vesa Toskala numbers.

Meantime, Dwayne Roloson has a 2.50 GAA and a .913 save percentage and pressure is on Scott Gordon to play Roloson over The Franchise. Fans are blaming DiPietro for the Islanders' 6-game losing streak although he only played in 3 of those games.

It's possible that DiPietro may never fully recover from his injuries. So what can the Islander do?

1. He can become a very expensive ($4.5 million a year) back up goalie.
2. They can bury him and the remaining $45 million in the minors over the next 10 seasons.
3. He can go on the long term injury list which provide the team with some cap relief but does not relieve their obligation to pay DiPietro.
4. The Islanders can buy him out which would cost them $1.5 million per season for 20 years. Remember they are still paying Alexei Yashin $2.2 million for another 4 seasons as part of his buyout.

Even with front-loaded contracts, the risks are just too high. Afterall, the average NHL career is about 5 or 6 seasons. A player who is 25 and signs a 15 year contract has already played at least 400 games and expected to play another 1200 games. Only about 10 players in the history of the NHL have played 1600 games. Ilya Kovalchuk will be expected to play about 1800 games if he completes his contract with the Devils. That would set an NHL record for games played. Yes, that's more than Gordie Howe, Mark Messier, and ron Francis.