Arizona Coyotes terminate Alex Galchenyuk’s contract following arrest
One day after his arrest, Alex Galchenyuk’s contract has been terminated by the Arizona Coyotes, the club announced Friday.
Newly signed Galchenyuk was arrested in Scottsdale, AZ on July 9 on numerous charges, The Athletic‘s Katie Strang reported Thursday.
According to Strang, Galchenyuk was booked on charges including “private property hit and run, disorderly conduct, failure to obey, resisting arrest, [and] Threatening or Intimidating”.
NEWS: Scottsdale Police Department has confirmed to The Athletic that Alex Galchenyuk was arrested on July 9 on a number of charges including private property hit and run, disorderly conduct, failure to obey, resisting arrest, Threatening or Intimidating
— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) July 13, 2023The 29-year-old forward spent Sunday night in a Scottsdale jail before being arraigned and released the following day. A pre-trial conference for Galchenyuk has been scheduled for August 11.
The Coyotes placed Galchenyuk on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination on Thursday, just 12 days after they signed him to a one-year, two-way contract as an unrestricted free agent.
“We are aware of the incident involving Alex Galchenyuk and strongly condemn this type of behavior,” the Coyotes said in a release Friday. “Once the Club was made aware of the allegations, we immediately began the process of terminating his Standard Player’s Contract through the proper channels in conjunction with the National Hockey League. As a result, the Arizona Coyotes today have exercised the team’s right to terminate the contract of Alex Galchenyuk due to a material breach of the terms of his Standard Player’s Contract. The Club will have no further comment at this time.”
Galchenyuk’s contract with the Coyotes carries a $775,000 NHL cap hit and a $225,000 AHL salary, with minimum guaranteed earnings of $325,000 — although, in the case of a contract termination, the Coyotes would likely be able to walk away from all of their financial commitments to the player.
PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reported on Thursday that the NHL Players Association is “looking into” the Coyotes’ move to terminate Galchenyuk’s contract.
Since Galchenyuk cleared waivers on Friday, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent once again and will be eligible to sign a new contract with any team. The Madison, Wisconsin product previously played with the Coyotes in the 2018–19 and 2021–22 seasons.
The Montreal Canadiens originally selected Galchenyuk in the first round (No. 3 overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft. The six-foot-one forward, who shoots left, made his NHL debut with the Canadiens in the 2012–13 season and topped out as a 30-goal scorer with the team in 2015–16.
Through 654 career NHL games with the Canadiens, Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Colorado Avalanche, Galchenyuk has collected 146 goals and 354 points.