Hurricanes president on buying out Alex Semin: 'We paid him $14 million to go away'

Carolina Hurricanes president Don Waddell says the club was willing to pay the price to ensure forward Alex Semin would no longer occupy a spot on the roster.

Waddell provided a detailed explanation for the Hurricanes' decision to buy out the remaining three years of Semin's five-year, $35-million contract extension.

"(He) was a very top-end player in the league when the game was played at a slower pace," Waddell told the Raleigh News and Observer's Chip Alexander. "It's now played at such a high level if you can't skate it's hard to compete. Alex lost a step and he tried to play on the outside too much because he didn't have the speed."

Semin didn't mesh well with head coach Bill Peters, according to Waddell.

"And then he didn't buy into the culture that our coach was trying to get in the locker room," the team president said.

"When you go to practice and you have 22 guys doing things the way the coach wants and one who doesn't, it usually doesn't end well. … In simple terms, we paid him $14 million to go away. When we talk about ownership, you don't do that unless you have a commitment to winning and (owner) Pete Karmanos certainly has that."

Semin signed a one-year, $1.1-million deal with the Montreal Canadiens in late July. The Hurricanes will pay him $14 million over a six-year period, rather than the $21 million they would have owed him prior to the buyout.

The 31-year-old spent three seasons with Carolina after playing parts of seven campaigns with the Washington Capitals, with whom he notched two 30-plus-goal seasons and a 40-goal effort in 2009-10.

- With h/t to Russian Machine Never Breaks