Injuries Are A Grey Area

When I earlier wrote about the Philadelphia Flyers decision to create salary cap room by placing Derian Hatcher on the long term injury exemption list, it touched on the problem that many injuries are hard to properly quantify. Most longterm NHL players suffer from a chronic or degenerative condition of some sort that could be considered an injury if it is convenient to do so and could be played through if that is considered convenient. In the case of Hatcher, he has a bad right knee, which he originally hurt in 2003. He has been able to play (although not as well as he did before the injury) with the pain. He has had to have his knee repeatedly drained between games, but he has been able to play. Now that his salary cap hit is seen as a liability by the Flyers, his knee condition is a long term injury that has most likely ended his career.There is another case, where the player is attempting to benefit from the unclear grey area that falls between definitely injured and definitely healthy. That is the case of David Tanabe of the Carolina Hurricanes.Continue reading "Injuries Are A Grey Area"