Thunderstorm Brewing
July 5th, 2008 by Jason ChenAfter shipping Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich to San Jose, the Lightning are trying to figure out how to shore up their defense. Reports suggests that the Lightning may go after Jason Smith, the former captain of the Flyers who has remained quiet and yet to sign or the trade route again, but this time dealing either Michel Ouellet or Jussi Jokinen due to their logjam at forward. I think what’s happening is completely ridiculous. Jay Feaster could’ve avoided all this negativity (from the media and Boyle) by just not signing Radim Vrbata and use that $3m on Smith. Even without Vrbata the Bolts would still be deep on offense, and in all honesty, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis don’t need that much help.
There aren’t too many high-end free agents out there, but there are RFAs a plenty. Teams that have failed to land the guy they want or didn’t have enough money to stay in the bidding wars will have the chance to hand out offer sheets. Andrej Meszaros headlines that group, who has yet to ink an extension with the Sens, and is reportedly drawing lots of interest from Columbus, Atlanta, and Vancouver. Should the Sens lose Meszaros, they’re reportedly in the running for Mathieu Schneider or Kyle McLaren. Another is Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who has become one of the premier playmaking pivots in the league, and I believe Columbus is still in the market for a number one centre. Local Vancouver radio reports that the Canucks have tended an offer sheet to Valtteri Filppula, for a reported $3.9m/year, but it has yet to be made official.
Kevin Lowe had some choice words for Brian Burke yesterday, firing back after a year of staying quiet about the issue surrounding Dustin Penner and inflating salaries. Lowe brings up a couple good points, but it’s a little lost in the translation. I’ve been in plenty of hockey arguments before, and when your opponent resorts to name-calling it usually means you’re doing something right. In the first paragraph Lowe takes a shot at Burke, but none of the name-calling amounts to much because Lowe doesn’t address the accusations made by Burke about inflating player salaries. Lowe brings up a good point later, however, when he notes that the standard for player salaries have been set ages ago and then goes on to talk about the six rings he’s won (he forgets to mention “as a player, not GM”). However, the standard was not set by the Ilya Kovalchuks and Rick Nashes, but even further back then that. The 1996-97 season would be the advent of eight figure salaries, with Mario Lemieux earning $11.35m that year, $5m more than runner-up Mark Messier. The next season, Joe Sakic and Chris Gratton (yes, Chris Gratton) would join that exclusive club, with Sakic earning $16.4m and Gratton $10.15m. From that season on, there would an increase of eight-figure salary players, including at least 5 per year from 2002 to the lockout. Despite the fact that the pre-CBA era hockey is a completely different brand than today’s, most of the GMs that are in the league today were still around during that time, and shrugged at the eight-figure salaries. To some, it was pretty normal, and those figures would stay in the back of their heads until today. The fact that the NHL’s cap has gone up year after year (Gary Bettman’s fault for providing faulty numbers about league revenue) doesn’t help. Player salaries will always remain relative to the cap, and had Bettman just said the cap was $50m for 4 years, all this could’ve possibly been avoided.
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3 Responses to “Thunderstorm Brewing”
By Troy on Jul 5, 2008
Why the Bolts got Vrbata is ridiculous. Jason Smith? Is that for leadership and sandpaper or what? He’s old, he’s past his prime, and he’d rather go back to New Jersey or Edmonton than come down to Tampa. I don’t care if it’s Feaster or Koules/Barrie doing this, I’m tired of it.
As for Lowe/Burke, I’m loving this. Burke claims Lowe is running the Oilers into the sewer, when in reality he has been extremely wise in his wheeling-and-dealing endevours. As for driving up the prices… isn’t that the job of a GM who has no shot at signing a player they’d like; to make other GM’s who have a shot have to give the player a cap-eating contract? Call me crazy, Lowe is doing a damn good job as GM of the Oilers. His only mistake recently was overpaying for Penner.
As for the cap itself… your idea of a 50 mil for this CBA idea is too logical for Bettman to understand. Bettman likes to complicate things and screw other people over in the process. Come on Jason!
By Troy on Jul 5, 2008
By the way, good title. “Thunderstorm Brewing” gives me this vision of ominous days in the future… oh wait, I get that same vision looking out my window every afternoon! It’s still good, in fact, it’s better.
By Jason C on Jul 5, 2008
I don’t know if Burke has claimed Lowe is running the Oilers into the ground, but he does blame him for driving up salaries. In reality, both guys have done great jobs as GM. For some odd reason, the “City of Champions” just isn’t really an attractive place to play (perhaps it’s the jerseys). He was spurned by Nylander at the last minute, Pronger asked to be traded, and Redden refused to waive his NTC.
The only route Lowe can take is the offer sheet, and Burke just happened to be the victim because of the overwhelming wealth of quality players Anaheim has. Vancouver has followed suit with the offer sheets, after failing to land Hossa and Sundin, but Gillis is smart enough to call ahead of time before he offers it though.
But you’re right Troy, there’s no way Vancouver nor Edmonton can attract top free agents without overpaying. There is no point in making an offer sheet with a reasonable number because odds are that the original team will match. I thought the Backes offer sheet made by Vancouver was a waste of time because it was a no-brainer that St. Louis would match. The point of the offer sheet is to make the GM think long and hard about what the player is worth. If it at least doesn’t make the other GM sweat it’s not worth doing.