What a roller coaster ride it's been for Darren Dietz. The defenceman - who was drafted by and played 13 games for the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL - was signed to a KHL contract with the highest salary in the league's history. However, it seems things have gone south recently.
According to reports out of Russia, Dietz, who is the captain of the KHL's Barys Nur-Sultan, is not currently playing with his team. Barys says it's an injury, but according to
Sport-express.ru, "no one believes that." Offense isn't the issue. Dietz has nine goals and 20 points in 29 games this season. However, he's a minus-19 right now. There are rumours of a potential trade, but that could be difficult.
"Darren is a very poor defender, and defending seems to be an imposed duty. He has become slow, he has no time, sometimes because he does not want to do anything. Who needs him?," said Sport-express.ru.
Dietz is getting 100 million rubles per season, the equivalent of $1.33 million USD. It's a lot of money by KHL standards. While it is the highest salary in the league, the KHL does not count, or even record bonuses on its salary cap. There are rumours that guys like Vadim Shipachyov are having their salaries tripled and even quadrupled through under-the-table bonuses. Still, Dietz is making a lot of money in Russia and the prospect that another team would want to take on that salary when he's defending so poorly is very small.
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Dietz has been playing with Barys since the 2017-18 season. The year after that was his best in the league. He had 53 points (15G, 38A) in 62 games and was a plus-30.
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