Thank you for explaining that. I can see why it doesn’t happen very often. Zadina’s old contract was back-loaded and required the team to pay him his full NHL salary in the AHL, so he gave up a ton of money. That’s really betting on yourself. Or maybe he’s the kind of person who doesn’t feel right taking somebody’s money if he’s not earning it. In any case, he should be heavily motivated to turn his game around in San Jose so he can make up for it on his next contract.
It actually happens moderately often, it's just not too common that a player does it and they stay in the NHL. Most of the time when there's a mutually agreed upon contract termination it's so a player can play overseas. The Sharks did it with Ivan Chekhovich a couple years back so he could go play in the KHL, for instance...they'd signed some players making his path to the NHL tougher and rather than play in the AHL he chose to go to the KHL.
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