Jonathan Bernier is headed to the Toronto Marlies: Probably not a sentence you thought you’d read less than two months into the season, fresh on the heels of Bernier signing a new two-year, $8.2 million contract.
Below is the CBA rule on conditioning stints. Bernier can spend up to two weeks with the Marlies, which for Toronto includes six games. If he were to stay down that long, he could reasonably start as many as four of those games, looking at the Marlies schedule.
Jonathan Bernier had to agree to AHL conditioning stint and will be paid NHL salary. Here are the rules from CBA: pic.twitter.com/eVxOeCQkms
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) December 2, 2015
There’s been some rhetoric out there that this is “Loophole Lou” at work — conditioning stints being traditionally reserved for situations where a recent injury has kept a player out of the lineup — but this is standard operating procedure at this point.
Regardless of whether there’s specific language in the CBA allowing for it, the conditioning stint has essentially become a go-to option for getting idle waiver-bound players into game action, as seen countless times this season — Tomas Jurco in Detroit, Viktor Stalberg in New York, Stanislav Galiev in Washington, and the list goes on.
It’s not as though teams are hiding their intentions. Here’s Washington head coach Barry Trotz addressing the Galiev reassignment:
“I haven’t gotten him into any games, and I think at some point we’ll get him into a game,” Trotz said. “We’ve had really no injuries at a position we’re really deep at. If someone goes down, for him to not be playing for a month pretty well, then to stick him in a game, I don’t think it’s really fair to him. He’s had a really good attitude, he’s worked hard, he’s done everything we’ve asked, but I have to have him prepared to jump into a game.”
The scope of “conditioning” in these cases can easily be stretched to include, “not playing enough to stay in top game shape.”
Besides, Bernier’s only featured in one game since returning from injury. While he was found healthy enough to start an NHL game, it wouldn’t be much of a leap to say conditioning is needed due to recent injury in this case.
More interesting — and concerning to the Players Association, no doubt — is the ongoing Frank Corrado situation. He’s played out his maximum stint with the Marlies and is essentially a practice squad player with the Leafs at this point.
Really, it’s something the NHL should address with a more robust framework around options for loans to the AHL. Teams are increasingly finding themselves in these situations with waiver-eligible assets they don’t want to expose to a potential claim, but at the same time are unable to get into games at the NHL level.
For Bernier’s sake, getting him some game action — practice reps can only do so much for confidence and game readiness — and out of the spotlight looks the right call by Leafs brass here.
The Marlies play three-in-three this weekend, meaning Bernier probably takes two of those starts — Friday and Sunday — with Bibeau playing in between.
Starting tonight for the big club is Garret Sparks, with James Reimer expected to go tomorrow versus Minnesota. My, how things can change in a hurry at the goaltending position.
