Ryan Johansen’s wife gets mixed up in feud with the Flyers!
His personal life gets affected by the contract termination in Philly and the grievance he recently filed.
On Thursday, the National Hockey League Players’ Association announced it officially filed a grievance over the Philadelphia Flyers’ decision to terminate Ryan Johansen ’s contract. It was in late August that the Flyers terminated the veteran forward’s deal for what the team called a “material breach” of contract.
When the contract termination was announced by Philadelphia, Johansen’s agent Kurt Overhardt, released a statement disputing the Flyers’ characterization, speaking of his client’s injury.
“Ryan Johansen has a severe hockey injury that requires extensive surgery which has been scheduled,” Overhardt said in the statement. “Since being traded to the Philadelphia Flyers , Ryan has worked in good faith with the club, its medical staff and authorized third-party physicians. The Flyers’ intent to terminate Ryan’s contract is disappointing.”
In April, general manager Daniel Briere said the Flyers were unsure if Johansen would ever be medically cleared to play for the organization.
On Friday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed on his 32 Thoughts podcast how messier the saga is getting since he spoke about Johansen’s private life and even wife getting mixed up in the ordeal. That’s because the veteran forward reportedly found out about his deal being terminated a few hours after his wedding where he managed to dance with his new wife, Abbey Gray.
“I never liked to question injuries,” Friedman started off, but went on:
“When Philadelphia announced the waivers of termination, it was just after his wedding and he was dancing and I had some people say to me that that may have been one of the reasons for the timing.
“And I had someone call me and he said he didn’t think that was fair. He was more mad at me than he was at Philly or anyone else. He said that there was a big difference between trying to battle Anze Kopitar and dancing at your wedding. And he didn’t like the correlation and didn’t like that I brought it up in that way.
“But that’s what the source of this dispute is going to be about (the injury) when they go into the grievance process.”
The Flyers acquired Johansen and a first-round pick from the Colorado Avalanche this past season in a deadline transaction that sent Sean Walker to Denver. Johansen had one year left on his contract at a salary of $8 million, but the Nashville Predators owed him half that sum as they retained 50% of his contract when they dealt him to the Avs.
When asked about Johansen’s deal and the status of it, general manager Daniel Briere simply stated:
“As far as I know, the contract is terminated.”
But boy is this feud just getting started… Friedman believes it’s going to come down to when Johansen met with doctors and what was their diagnosis.
“The answer from those doctors will determine who ends up winning or losing or settling this particular grievance."
