Hurricanes could have trouble buying out Tanabe

From Luke Decock of the News & Observer:

The uniform NHL player contract stipulates that an injured player will receive his salary as long as he is unable to play or until the contract expires.

Tanabe’s agent, Neil Sheehy, said he planned to “enforce David’s rights under the CBA [labor agreement]” and the NHL Players’ Association is watching the situation as well.

“Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, clubs are not permitted to buy out injured players, such as David Tanabe,” NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said. “If the terms of the CBA are not followed in David’s case, the NHLPA will exercise all of its rights under the agreement.”

Read the entire article here.

Dan Cloutier is involved in a similar situation as well. These decisions basically depend on the opinions of doctors. The problems arise when one side has a doctor saying one thing and the other side has another doctor saying something else. We’ll see if the Tanabe situation gets to that point or if it is resolved beforehand.