Why Brandon Saad passed on over $5 million to become a UFA

Not a lot of people were surprised by the fact that Brandon Saad was placed on waivers on Tuesday. He’s had one of the worst seasons of his career, and with the St. Louis Blues attempting to make a run for the playoffs, they likely thought that using the roster spot for another player was the better option.

But people were surprised when, the following day, Saad and the Blues mutually agreed to terminate the contract. It’s something we do see from time to time from players on contracts in the hundreds of thousands, but rarely do we see someone do this where, in Saad’s case, he’s leaving nearly $5.4 million on the table.

Frank Seravalli talked on Daily Faceoff Live about the recent move from Brandon Saad and why he was fine with sacrificing that money for opportunity.

Frank Seravalli: It’s not unprecedented, but it’s a bold move because I think a lot of people look at Brandon Saad’s game this year, and see that this is a player that’s clearly on the decline. So to walk away from the guaranteed money, yes, he’s earned a bit and I think he’s going to be completely financially fine, which is obviously part of the motivation to make a move such as this one.

I think he’s going to be hard pressed to ultimately make the $5.4 million back over time. We’ll see. We’ve seen other players bet on themselves. But the point is you can’t get back to that level unless you get an opportunity and you’re not going to get one in the AHL.

So the Blues have been trying to trade him for a span of months. They haven’t found any suitors and really were out of other options, and they needed to make something happen to open up a line up spot for others and decided to make this move to put him on waivers and send him to the AHL.

You can watch the full episode here…