Patrick O'Sullivan Now a Hurricane

It is now official, today the Hurricanes signed Patrick O`Sullivan to a one year, two-way deal. It pays him $600,000 at the NHL level and $105,000 in the AHL. More at CH.com

over 1 year ago Bob Wage 31 comments 0 recs |

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That’s a steal. Great signing by JR!

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by Great Ice-Pectations on Sep 17, 2010 11:51 AM EDT reply actions

Steal at the NHL level

$600k is an absolute steal. That’s a low risk situation right there.

Don't trust me. I have psychological issues.

by C-Leaguer on Sep 17, 2010 11:52 AM EDT reply actions

That was absolute highway robbery pulled off by JR! Low risk with the potential of a very high reward.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.

by anonymousJ on Sep 17, 2010 12:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Love this deal!

by Iggy Reilly on Sep 17, 2010 11:59 AM EDT reply actions

Awesome depth move by good ol’ JR.

by rubyhawk on Sep 17, 2010 12:12 PM EDT reply actions

The Oilers did sell super-low on this, so much so that there’s nowhere O’Sullivan can go but up. The only problem is that he might not have that far to go before he hits his performance ceiling — his judgment with the puck has never looked terribly good. It’s all pretty inauspicious, I think.

On the actual upside, we now have two players from that March 2009 trade; with the transitive property, it’s like Williams is back!

by mzy on Sep 17, 2010 12:26 PM EDT reply actions

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/whoselifeisit/story.html
Don’t know if this has been posted yet, but good, heart wrenching read about O’Sullivan’s past with his father.

Hockey is my oxygen, football is my food, and baseball is my water. I'd say basketball is my shelter, but I'd rather not lie.

by truheelzfan44 on Sep 17, 2010 1:01 PM EDT reply actions

Low Risk, with a decent upside. Good stuff to me.

by wylde4canes on Sep 17, 2010 1:54 PM EDT reply actions

It's a Question of Which O'Sullivan Is Prepared to Play in Carolina

O’Sullivan is young and has excellent skills offensively. He has to decide whether he wants to be a 20+ scorer who plays defense and is a team player or whether he will be a vagabond player shuffling from team to team. It’s truly his decision to make. The Hurricanes organization is built around nurturing its players. So the question basically comes down to: Is O’Sullivan the next Jokinen or is he instead the next Eaves?

He has had a very difficult life in many ways. It would be a triumph of the human spirit if he can take full advantage of this opportunity and find his game again. It’s a good decision by Jim Rutherford on many levels.

by abramsdoug on Sep 17, 2010 1:59 PM EDT reply actions

Honestly, this is neither Eaves nor Jussi. This is quarter in a slot machine. If it comes up 7’s then JR looks like a genius. If it comes up a bust, no one bats an eye because you can bail on him in the minors.

These are the kind of small moves that make sense. Good on JR this time, regardless of how this turns out.

by wylde4canes on Sep 17, 2010 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed … furthermore, I don’t really see Eaves failures here as a result of something he did by choice. i thought he worked hard here, it just didn’t pan out for whatever reason.

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by Cory Lavalette on Sep 17, 2010 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions

*cough*Mo*cough*

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 17, 2010 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions

Although honestly, we just could not seem to get the boy healthy.

Seemed like it was always something for a couple of seasons there.

And, lest we forget, he (and a fourth-rounder) was what brought A. Ward back into the fold.

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 17, 2010 5:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Eaves

I think Eaves didn’t fit with the style of play the Hurricanes needed. He was one of the most skilled players the Hurricanes had and was often awesome in practice. He certainly was not particularly healthy, but in the end he couldn’t find consistency to his game. Surprisingly, he was not as physical as I had thought he would be. It didn’t make sense to pay his salary when he was not going to be able to crack the top six.

by abramsdoug on Sep 17, 2010 11:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Similar offer made to Christoph Schubert and turned down

Sounds as though JR is still going after another big, rugged defenseman to add grit but looking for a real bargain. O’Sullivan decided to settle for a low-dollar two-way contract but apparently Schubert is still looking for more money, a one-way deal, or both.

by curiouscanesfan on Sep 17, 2010 3:28 PM EDT reply actions

I know he’s a cheap signing, but I’m a little puzzled about adding another forward. As Elsker says, we are dripping with them. With all of JR’s talk about giving the young guys a chance to make the NHL roster, adding this guy almost seems like taking one of the 4 or so slots away.

by Gillimus on Sep 17, 2010 4:12 PM EDT reply actions

JR made it pretty clear about a week ago when talking about adding players for training camp that he would avoid any one-way deals in order to keep the available roster spots open for the youngsters and more importantly, which ever player earns it during camp.

by Killswitch on Sep 17, 2010 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions

True, but since O’Sullivan is subject to waivers if we try to move him down or up, there’s less flexibility than the mere contract status.

Although, if we’re trying to send him down, we must not want him on the big club, so take him.

On the other hand, don’t want to lose him to re-entry waivers and end up paying half of his NHL salary if the other team uses him at that level.

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 17, 2010 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions

On the other hand, don’t want to lose him to re-entry waivers and end up paying half of his NHL salary if the other team uses him at that level.

I wouldn’t really worry about that too much. One his contract value is low, so the hit for a total season on re-entry waivers is $300k. Two, if he clears waivers I would imagine he would only get called up as an injury sub which means he wouldn’t have to clear waivers. JR can get to the max roster size by sending down one of the players who doesn’t have to pass through waivers. Three, if he plays in Charlotte that may be better from a PR perspective than anything else, and it could be beneficial to O’Sullivan skill wise. There’s no doubt he’s got offensive skill, but he needs some polishing on the defensive side. He can get that polish in Charlotte and be a contributor late this season and next year all the while being the local boy on the team.

Don't trust me. I have psychological issues.

by C-Leaguer on Sep 17, 2010 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions

He’s better offensively than Boychuk & Tlusty and part of the knock against him defensively was he’s a smaller center that got pushed around down low. I think if you put him on the wing he’ll be fine defensively. Put him on a line with Dalpe & Skinner.

by Go_Shelf on Sep 17, 2010 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Put him on a line with Dalpe & Skinner.

Someone on a current one-way contract is going to have to go for that to happen.

We’re not just full up. We’re overflowing.

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 17, 2010 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I believe that O’Sullivan is exempt from re-entry waivers due to his AHL salary being $105,000. $105,000 is the maximum a player at the AHL level can make without having to go through re-entry. Note that Rodney and Dwyer both have $105,000 AHL salaries as well.

by Kahz on Sep 17, 2010 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Not quite. Salary has nothing to do with waivers. Instead, waivers eligibility is related to the number of pro seasons a player has and/or how many games played sometimes. Complicated matrix of criteria to determine eligible or exempt – none of which are related to the Dollar amount or even whether it’s a one way or two way. (all contained in Article 13 of the CBA which I spent a weekend studying back in July)

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by Carolyn Christians on Sep 17, 2010 9:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Actually, Kahz is correct about the re-entry waiver portion of the risk.

O’Sullivan is subject to waivers if sent to the AHL, as per the provisions you cited regarding age when pro contract was signed and NHL seasons.

But he is not subject to re-entry waivers if called up from the AHL to the NHL, per further provisions within the CBA which Katz is citing.

His eligibility for not being subject to re-entry waivers is based on three findings:
1) He has a 2-way contract
2) His AHL salary did not exceed $105,000
3) He had played more than 40 NHL games last season or more than 80 NHL games over the past two seasons.

If any one of those three were not true, then he would have been subject to re-entry waivers and the salary-sharing scenario.

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 17, 2010 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions

this site has quite a good explanation of waivers and re-entry waiver conditions of the current CBA, (it agrees with the previous comment, none of our 2 way contracted players could be claimed on re-entry as long as they had played 40 NHL games last year so Carson would be in that group, but not Rodney I think)
http://www.nhlscap.com/waivers.htm

by Whitless? on Sep 17, 2010 11:52 PM EDT up reply actions

oops the NHL games played only counts if ahl salary is more than 105k so thats prob why all the 2 ways are x/105k.

by Whitless? on Sep 18, 2010 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow. Impressive. Thank you. I had not seen that aspect referred to before. And I don’t recall seeing it in Art 13 – heads off to her documents file. That would explain the magic number. As you say,only Harrison and Tlusty would be “more vulnerable” on re-entry (because of the half-price deal) than on Regular waivers.

Twitter @HMof2

by Carolyn Christians on Sep 18, 2010 9:50 AM EDT up reply actions

You know, although I have the PDF file for the CBA always handy and refer to it on occassion, I’ve never been able to find that re-entry waiver rules provision within the Agreement.

Instead, I’ve relied on one-off cheat sheets, like the link that Whitless provided, to cover that particular aspect of the player movement rules.

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 18, 2010 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions

Its buried in section 50.9 (g) which talks about AHL salaries, specifically part iii on page 223!

by Whitless? on Sep 18, 2010 10:46 AM EDT up reply actions

Thanks!

Buried, is right. Had not thought to look there, nor is it mentioned in the contents.

But, yes, buried in the middle of all the compensation rules is the “new” (was in 2005) re-entry waiver regulations.

Nice to read it for myself instead of relying on the cheat sheet summaries. Already seen some nuances that they omit.

Here we are now...entertain us.

by Elsker on Sep 18, 2010 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Well—-last week I watched all these guys (except Skinner and O’Sullivan.) With all these fast , eager guys fighting for a few spots————I’d hate to be the one having to make the picks !! (but it is not a bad problem to have)

GO CANES! Go Heels!

by UNCCaniac8 on Sep 17, 2010 9:21 PM EDT reply actions