Inside the NHL
Salary concerns phase out in-season trades
Long gone are the days of the quick fix, in which general managers across the NHL would evaluate their rosters through 20 games and address needs with a quarter-pole swap meet. Back in the day, trades were mostly completed based on need and talent over the almighty buck.
Not anymore.
GMs these days are all about dollars and sense with a four-step thought process that generally goes in this order: annual salary, length of contract, years remaining before unrestricted free agency, hockey ability. If the first three don’t add up, the fourth doesn’t make a bit of difference.
“It isn’t about just hockey,” Sabres GM Darcy Regier said. “It’s about years on the contract, dollars in the contract and a lot of things that weren’t there before. You can say, ‘I love that player,’ but that’s not the first place you look. The first place is, ‘What’s his contract?’ ”
Regier suggested that every team, including his own, has over-signed players. Too many are making bigger bucks than their worth given the salary cap. It has created a widening gap between the salaries of NHL elite players and plumbers (see: Kaleta, Patrick) who are no less important on a given night.
The result has been a logjam across the NHL that inhibits player movement. Almost every team has the same objective but also the same problems. Nobody wants overpaid players. In order to ship them out, it takes a trading partner who is willing to accept an underachiever based on money versus production.
And if a productive player has a sensible salary, why trade him? With 20 teams within $3 million of the $56.7 million salary cap, there’s little wiggle room to swap players unless their contracts are also similar. Essentially, early-season trades these days require two teams willing to trade stars for stars or trash for trash.
“In most cases, you can only get another player who is in a similar position on another team,” Regier said. “That’s why it doesn’t happen.”
The options? Teams can waive a player and hope another teams grabs him, thereby losing a player for nothing or risk paying him NHL money while he plays in the AHL. They can trade one underachieving player for another, which makes little sense. They can stick with their current roster and hope.
“Almost invariably, to make a trade, you’re going to have to take something back,” Thrashers assistant GM Rick Dudley said. “It’s a different dynamic than it used to be.”
Eighty-six players, nearly three for every team, will pocket $5 million or more this season in the NHL. Do the math, and it accounts on average for about $15 million of the $56.7 million salary cap. It means most teams are spending at least 26 percent of their payroll on three players. And that’s assuming they’re spending to the cap.
Take the Flyers, for example, who have committed 65 percent of their payroll to six players— Daniel Briere, Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, Jeff Carter, Kimmo Timonen and Chris Pronger— who make a combined $37.1 million. Twelve other grunts make less than $1 million. Injured defenseman Mike Rathje, who makes $3.5 million, hasn’t played since 2006 and doesn’t count against the cap.
“The rich are still getting rich,” Regier said. “It’s the cap effect. Organizations are deciding that they’re going to pay the best players. You’re going to pay the mid-range player, but not as much as you used to.—The top players are going to get the money, but anybody below the top players, you’re going to see a big dropoff.”
Eighteen percent of the players are making $4 million. Sixty percent make less than $2 million, including 45 percent pocketing $1 million or less. Teams that have great players are willing to overpay to keep them, leaving mid-tier players to make low-tier salaries.
It’s what happened with former Sabres rental Dominic Moore and Blue Jackets winger Manny Malhotra. Moore rejected a three-year offer worth $5.1 million from the Leafs and signed a one-year deal for $1.1 million last week with Florida. Malhotra turned down a three-year deal in the $4.8 million range in June and signed a one-year deal worth $700,000 with the Sharks.
Not exactly pennies, but does it make sense?
Wilson’s wallet lighter
Leafs coach Ron Wilson is $25,000 lighter after the NHL fined him for tampering.
Wilson suggested over the summer that Toronto was interested in the Sedin twins while they were still under contract with the Canucks. He made the mistake during a radio interview June 30, the day before the free-agent signing period opened. The Sedins wound up re-signing with the Canucks.
Vancouver also was upset with Leafs GM Brian Burke discussing whether the Canucks would offer Kevin Bieksa, Alex Burrows and a first-round pick to Tampa for the second pick overall and the right to take defenseman Victor Hedman.
Burke was not fined because the statement was made during a documentary for Leafs TV that wasn’t made public until months afterward. The Lightning and Canucks never struck a deal, and Hedman is now playing for the Bolts.
Vigilante justice sought
Oilers coach Pat Quinn was longing for old-school retribution (see: assault with a deadly weapon) last week after Jarome Iginla’s punishment for tripping up defenseman Sheldon Souray in an ugly spill was a couple punches to the mush.
Souray suffered a concussion when he landed head first into the wall. Iginla was given a minor penalty and forced to fight Ethan Moreau later in the period. It was hardly enough justice for Quinn, plenty feisty at age 66.
“The players of today aren’t the same as in my day,” Quinn said. “If something had happened like that, the guy would have been hit over the head with a stick. But, you dealt dirt with dirty back in my day. But now, they don’t allow vigilante stuff, so we do him the honor of a fist-fight.”
Durbano? Um, no
Nothing like starting the season off with a bang.
Last week, Lindy Ruff suggested his team needed to play tougher this season and made reference to former Kansas City Scouts goon Steve Durbano. It led to a column that was based on a picture hanging from a wall outside the Sabres’ dressing room.
One problem: The picture was actually of ex-Scout Henry Boucha, not the rough-and-tumble Durbano. Ooops. Reader Jim Insinnia made a heads-up play and sent me an e-mail about Boucha, which Mike Robitaille confirmed after a deserved ribbing.
The point was the same, but give me 10 minutes in the box for the blunder. That’s fair, but Ruff deserves a double-minor for instigating.
Bruins lock up Lucic
Good work by the Bruins last week in getting bruiser Milan Lucic signed through the 2012-13 season. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound winger signed a three-year extension worth $12 million that kicks in next season. He would have become a restricted free agent.
Lucic, who had 17 goals and 42 points last season, is a prototypical power forward who has the potential to become the next Todd Bertuzzi, only with infinitely more charm. The 21- year-old is a truck alongside Marc Savard and Marco Sturm on the top line.
“His skill set, his character are all tremendous assets for us,”GM Peter Chiarelli told the Boston Globe last week. “I was really excited to get things done.”
Quotable
Quinn on the Oilers ineffectiveness in getting the puck out of their own end: “They’re taking routes that aren’t on any map I own.”
Around the boards
• Newcomer Martin Havlat had the primary assist on three goals to lead the Wild back from a 3-0 deficit in the third period in an overtime victory over Anaheim. That was Good Marty. Bad Marty showed up Thursday in L. A., where Havlat was on the ice for three goals against in his first three shifts, giving him a brief stay on the bench.
• A source in Edmonton says the Oilers would trade puck-moving defenseman Tom Gilbert in a heartbeat for Drew Stafford, if the Sabres were interested. The Oilers, who have longed for Stafford since he entered the league, need a bigger winger. Fat chance. Gilbert would help the PP, but he’ll make $3 million more than Stafford in 2010-11.
• One player worth watching is Nashville winger Patric Hornqvist. The last player picked in the 2005 draft had only two goals in 28 games last season, but he had two goals and two assists in his first two games this year. “He gets into those dirty, greasy areas,” Predators coach Barry Trotz said.
• Former Sabres first-round pick Brad May, out of work since finishing last season with the Leafs, has moved from the outhouse to the penthouse. He signed a one-year deal for $500,000 last week with the Red Wings, who needed an enforcer. “Clearly, I’m trying to push that role,” said May, 37, a veteran of 1,002 games going into the weekend.
• Andrew Ference, on the committee that ultimately fired NHLPA chief Paul Kelly, has been replaced as the Bruins’ player representative. Brad Stuart is taking over with Mark Recchi on a committee to find a replacement for Kelly. They should start by calling back Kelly, who never should been bumped in the first place.
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