They are a select breed of hockey player. Over the past two years, they are represented by phenoms such as Mike Peca, Alexei Yashin, Nikolai Khabibulin, and Eric Lindros. They are the type that is willing to skip a season at the peak of their careers. The type that is willing to sacrifice relations with their fans, the NHL, and the media. The type that is willing to spend a year away from the game they love at its highest and most exciting level. The type that is willing to do just about anything their agent tells them for some extra money and personal revenge. The type that are also known as holdouts.

There will always be holdouts in such a competitive age in sports such as this one, and in a league where there are no salary caps. A place where contracts and salaries can run wild. First, this leads to a problem for poorer, small-market teams that can't pay the big money. Second, it allows the players' imagination to run wild. They can get contracts their teams cannot afford, ask for money they are not worth, and salaries they don't deserve. And if they don't get it, they are willing to sit out until they get what they want. Of course, the reason for sitting is not always more money. Sometimes it can be the bad advice of an agent, or the need for personal revenge against a certain team or person.

The Islanders, the worst team of the regular season last year, have recently acquired two of the best young centers in the league: Mike Peca and Alexei Yashin. Both were holdouts. Both had the chance to become defining players, a symbol of their teams. Peca is heralded as the best defensive forward in the league, and has been honored with the Selke Trophy and a C on his sweater in years past. Yashin is considered a premier offensive threat, despite having two awful consecutive postseason performances. Despite having a great regular season last year with Ottawa, Yashin was criticized for not playing hard enough in Toronto's sweep of the Senators in the first-round. In the end, along with poor postseason play and the memory of his sitting out just a season prior left management with no other choice than to trade Yashin.

As for Peca, he wanted $3.5 million, while Buffalo offered $2.8. Neither side would budge, and Peca promised to never play for the Sabres again, because of $700,000. So let's review this entire scenario. Yashin and Peca were traded away from hockey-crazed cities where they were icons, and now find themselves on last year's worst team, in a place where no one has paid attention to the Islanders since 1983. Along with this, they threw away a year of their careers at their peaks. 

Then there is always Nikolai Khabibulin. Recently returned as a Tampa Bay Lightning, the young and talented Russian goaltender missed almost two years of playtime with the Phoenix Coyotes. With the re-awakening of Sean Burke Khabibulin's service were no longer needed in Phoenix and the youngster was soon traded to Tampa when the new ownership took over. Khabibulin, like Peca and Yashin, now finds himself on a team desperate to make the playoffs.

And then there is the ever-continuing-and-tiring epic of Eric Lindros. However, Eric Lindros is out to get revenge in a dispute with the Flyers. The money is not an issue in his case. Lindros has vowed never to play with the Flyers again, but has said he will only sign with four other teams: Toronto, Washington, St. Louis, and Detroit. Toronto has said they will no longer attempt to make a trade. Detroit has too. St. Louis may not want him anymore, after acquiring other great forwards with size in Keith Tkachuk and Doug Wieght. And as for the Capitals, they may not have the money, players, or the desire to acquire Lindros.

So now, the journey continues. Flyers GM Bobby Clarke has nowhere to send him. Meanwhile, one of the elite players in the league has already sat out one season, and is likely to sit yet another.

Holdouts hurt themselves and the game. The league needs players like Peca, Lindros, Yashin, and Khabibulin playing and astounding fans. They are big-name marquee players, and when they don't play, the game misses them. Meanwhile, these young players themselves are hurt. They don't gain any experience, they lose fans and respect, and they miss valuable time at the peak of their careers. They all do it for different reasons. Some do it because of the bad advice of agents, other revenge, and others $700,000.