One of the conditions to the trade that sent Vincent Lecavalier to the Los Angeles Kings earlier in the year was that he had to retire following the season, thus leaving both the Flyers and Kings without any financial obligations.
It was a win-win: the Flyers didn’t have to worry about keeping his contract around (whether via buy out or just by keeping him on the roster for two more seasons) and Vinny got a chance to end his career on the ice instead of in the press box.
But after going through a bit of a resurgence — that’s generous, but we’ll call it that anyway — after the trade from Philly to L.A., there was speculation that Vinny would renege on that promise. That speculation was incorrect, however: Vinny’s retiring.
#kings Vincent Lecavalier will confirm today he’s retiring from hockey at 36. What a career for a real pro and a great guy. Congrats.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) June 21, 2016
In the trade back in January, the Flyers and Kings effectively split the remainder of Lecavalier’s $4.5 million cap hit. That goes away with Lecavalier’s retirement, but had he decided to stick around, both teams would have been responsible for $2.25 million against the cap in 2016-17 (and perhaps beyond had Vinny played to the end of his deal in 2018).
No worries now, though. We’re sorry the Lecavalier experiement didn’t work out in Philadelphia, but this is good news for the Flyers. Best of luck to Vinny in retirement.
