The Rick DiPietro nightmare is finally over for the New York Islanders. Well, that's not entirely true, but the organization is finally starting a new chapter by using one of their compliance buyouts on their pricey goaltender. The move will finally remove DiPietro's bloated – and hilarious – 15-year, $67.5 million contract from their payroll.
According to Arthur Staple of Newsday, the club will pay DiPietro $1.5 million a year for the next 16 seasons, but this figure won't count against the cap.
At some point you kind of have to feel bad for DiPietro. The goaltender signed a ridiculous contract that the Islanders offered. While it's true his health has been dreadful ever since putting pen to paper, it's not his fault the team made one of the biggest financial blunders in NHL history. We've all had our fair share of laughs at DiPietro's expense, but at the end of the day it's the Islanders we should be mocking.
The buyout comes as DiPietro had eight years remaining on his 15-year contract. We all knew this move was coming after the Islanders placed DiPietro on waivers (shockingly, he wasn't claimed) and forced him to spend the rest of the 2012-13 season down in the AHL. Last year DiPietro carried a 4.09 GAA in three NHL games and a 2.93 GAA in 18 AHL games.
At this point we'd actually like to see DiPietro get his career back on track. The man has already been paid a ridiculous amount of cash, but we'd like to see him put his injury-riddled history behind him and move on from the mess the Islanders placed him in.
