It make John Ferguson Jr's job easier though!

Media/Fans: How did you not get (insert player here)??!?!?!?!?

Ferguson: I didn't have the cap room.


On a side note, Canadiens.com has a poll of how they feel about getting the 5th overall pick... the options are

1) Ugh! So close yet so far!
2) Considering we're a playoff team, and we haven't picked #5 since 1984, I say we beat the odds.
3) At least we did better than Toronto!
4) All of the above.

Needless to say #3 and 4 are top right now :p

I don't have anything against Leaf fans though.... my dad, grandfather and girlfriend are all Leaf fans. Thank goodness I broke the mold! :D

I'll be sad if Modano leaves Dallas. He isn't as good as he was, but still...

Man, I would love to get Modano, though...just a great player to watch...

I don't see him leaving Dallas though...

You just contact his agent to guage interest. No harm, no foul.

I'm pretty sure that most pro sports tampering rules include talking to agents about a specific player.

And we know teams never find ways around those rules.

Dallas buys out Pierre Turgeon, Phoenix buys out Brian Savage and apparently Colorado will not buy out Rob Blake or Joe Sakic. I would have figured they would buy out one of them as they both have contracts over $6 million ($6.4ish for Blake, $6.7ish for Sakic).



Yeah, I don't understand why would they favor keeping Zubov over Modano. I loved watching Modano play during the pre-trap days. Bryan Marchment sucks...

Sakic and Blake still have contracts over 6 million (after the rollback?)

Yep, that is after the rollback. They were both making $8+ under the previous rules.

Right. Well, I can't aruge with keeping them. Great players, still. Who would they replace them with?

I don't know if you could replace them but you're taking a big chunk of the cap for those 2 players. The Avs have Forsberg and Foote as the prominent UFAs and Hejduk, Tanguay, and Aebischer are RFAs. Forsberg is gone. I believe Foote is also gone. I also think it will be hard to keep both Hejduk and Tanguay.


Saw this on Eklund's message board, Red Wings buy out Derian Hatcher, Ray Whitney, and Darren McCarty.

I'm assuming one or all of them take a pay cut to play in TOronto... it ain't realistic but I'd still be a happy camper if it happened.

If he leaves he wants to play with Hull on the Coyotes...

Yeah. That's been the rumor since the get go. The bigger question is Shanahan really. He has a player option so I am not exactly sure how it will work. I don't know if he's already exercised it or if he is still waiting to. If the latter, perhaps the Wings could convince him not to exercise the option and then sign him at a more reasonable rate.

fixed

Well, it's official. TSN is reporting the Wings waived Hatcher, Whitney, and McCarty. Not surprising at all. They'll clear waivers and be bought out.

Hatcher played what? All of 6, 7 games with the Wings? Oh well...

Whitney never fit in anyway. What were the Wings thinking signing him to a $4 million deal?

Well, the only thing I can think of was that Kenny Holland was on his way back to Detroit from, I don't know, Florida. He stops in Columbus for the night and goes to a bar. He starts sinking some pints and meets Ray Whitney. So, he and Ray start talking hockey and more pints ensue. Then it's shots. Next thing you know it's 3:30 am and Ken and Ray and pissed out of their minds and Ray starts talking about his great stats last year, 20+ goals, 50+ assists. Kenny Holland starts thinking he's talking to a young Igor Larionov or Adam Oates or something with those stats and slurs out an "I love you, man! You're hired! You're hired!" They make a quick agreement on the back of a coaster at the local strip club, Holland staggers to his hotel, and passes out. He wakes up the next morning with a splitting headache, terribly hungover, he hear's a knock on the door, he opens it. There stands a beaming Ray Whitney holding up the signed coaster. Holland stands there stunned. He slowly starts to piece the events of last night together... But he looked and sounded so good last night and now I have to pay $4.5 million a year for this?!

It will be sad to see McCarty go. He has had a lot injury problems and certainly isn't worth $1.7 million in today's NHL. That said, he seemed like a great guy to have around the locker room and was a big part of the Wings era. he provided us with some of the greatest moments in recent Wings' history.

Off the top of my head, two great McCarty Moments:

1. Game winning goal in Game 4 of the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs. This was the Cup clenching goal. A break-away goal. A real beauty. Totally faked Niniima out of his jock and made Hextall look silly. A gorgeous goal.

2. March 26, 1997: McCarty exacts revenge on Claude Lemieux for Lemieux's dirty hit on Kris Draper in the 1996 Western Conference finals. McCarty pounds Lemieux sparking off one hell of a brawl that also included Vernon taking it to Patrick Roy and some how Larionov and Forsberg getting tangled up. This event sparked a fight-filled game which ended with the Wings winning 6-5 in OT with, you guessed it, Darren McCarty scoring the OT game winner.

He was a clutch player for the Wings. A physical presence when needed. I will miss him in the line-up. He's been around since '93. I wish him well.

I have a hard time envisioning letting Sakic go. Blake, on the other hand, I can see leaving. I'd rather see Blake go and use that money to keep Hejduk and Tanguay.

I've never really been a big fan of Adam Foote, but I wonder if he might take less than market value to stay with the franchise he's spent his whole career with. Hard to say, really, just what the market for guys like Foote will be - it's not like the Rangers are still going to be throwing out $4-$5 million contracts out to guys like this, are they?

I'm not sure I see Aebischer getting a huge deal anywhere. I'd imagine lots of goalies will be changing zip codes this offseason - he may stay, he may go. If he does, there's probably someone floating around the Avs can pick up. I don't imagine they are ready to go with Sauve.

Sadly, I don't see any way that Forsberg will be back. I can't help thinking he and Naslund end up somewhere together.

so, if my math is right...

Hatcher signed a 5 year deal for $6.5 Million.
He played...er, rehabbed one season at that price.
Last year didn't happen.
New salary is 4.94 million, of which he has 3 years left.
2/3 buyout is 3.31 million * 3, or $9.9 Million.

so, basically, the Wings paid $16.4 million for the 15 regular season and 12 postseason games Hatcher played. For that $16.4 million, they got 0 goals, 5 assists, 23 penalty minutes and 30 shots on net. Hatcher was a +4.

Neat

how does the LA Kings look to you guys for this season?

they seem to have some good cap room to get some good players added with there young talented players.

Yes.

...snicker...

It's official, Habs decline the team option on Brisebois-- however there is a clause that says Montreal CAN re-sign him at a lower salary if Brisebois wants... as long as we don't overpay, I wouldn't mind seeing him back but not at 3.4 million.

The Kings do have a pretty strong situation -- the problem, as I see it, is they really lack the player to build around. Frolov looks good, but he's not there yet, and I have doubts he will ever be a night-in, night-out dominant player. Guys like Corvo and Gleasen are good young defensemen, but again they lack the big-time puckrusher to keep things together.

If they can sign a Pronger and Kovalev, plus get someone like Aebischeer, they'll have a pretty solid group of players. But without at least two bigtime additions, I don't see them doing much.

I heard that Khabibuhlin is going to return to Phoenix... They have the makings of a decent team.

Well they seem to be one of the teams who will have money. They've got a boatload of talented young forwards like Mike Cammalleri and Dustin Brown. If they land a couple of ace players to go with them, they could be sitting really good.

Lacroix has said Blake and Sakic are staying. As mentioned above, a bit surprised about Blake, but I think Pierre Lacroix has already proven that he is smarter than me

EDIT: except for trading Derek Morris for Chris Gratton :rolleyes:

If he (Forsberg) was under contract then there would be a clear violation. Talking to the agents of potential signees, according to Bill Watters, is fairly routine.

I must say, I'm surprised Ottawa isn't doing anything in the way of buyouts. They have a little more than 20 million tied up in 10 players with guys like Havlat, Hossa and Spezza RFA's...

We'll see if they need to do something.

Don't forget, he also got caught flat footed in front of the net looking at the puck, while Martin Gelinas knocked the Wings out of the playoffs. It's all about karma :)

I have a feeling that coaches like Mike Keenan won't last long in the new NHL either.Why would a F.A getting similar offers from different teams go to a team with an a-hole for a coach?

Players coaches will be all the rage soon.

really, salary cap or no, Keenan should have been out of the NHL years ago

Does anyone feel that outside of a Top 5 pick, draft picks will be virtually useless with the way free agency is structured?

At least with the NCAA system, NFL picks are able to contribute right away. That's not the same with hockey. Almost all 18 and 19 year olds will be sent back to juniors, NCAA prospects will finish all four years of college, 20 year old will be sent to the AHL for a couple or three seasons and Euros will not be brought over unless they are ready to contribute.

I think you'll see the end of middle-of-the-road Euros coming over. Saturday's draft will be VERY interesting. How many Euros will be drafted? How many goalies and defencemen will be drafted in the first round (with the idea that those positions take longer to develop)?

Same here and Muckler doesn't have much time to change his mind because buyouts are only good for the 6 days ( I read something about another buyout period for teams that had players with arbitration).

Luc Robitaille re-signs with the Kings for 1 year, no financial info released. Shame there's no financial info as I would like to see what a player like Robitaille would make with the new CBA.

Personally, I think it is irrelevant for comparisons sake because he wants to retire a King and they want him to retire a King. I think money was definitely a secondary factor in this signing so it wouldn't be a good example. Robitaille has made his money, he just wants to play in LA now, and he probably took the best fit salary for the team at this time.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned with the salary cap is how will signing bonuses be handled? Do they count entirely in the year that the contract is signed as additional salary? Or are there very few contracts in the NHL with a signing bonus since the contracts are guaranteed?

Actually, I was thinking that draft picks will have more value in the new NHL. My reasoning in this is that while it may take them longer to pay off, if you can find a productive young player in the later rounds, you will have him tied up at a rather low salary for a number of years where he could be productive. Perhaps we may see more young players holding out as the league takes shape, but it could be a while.

Signing bonuses were prorated under the old CBA. Not sure if that has changed.

dola

The Blues GM says he will not buyout Weight or Tkachuk and will try to bring Pronger back.

That'll be interesting to see if they can keep Pronger.

Under the old CBA it didn't matter if they were prorated because there was no limit each year.

So they were paid out evenly over the entire length of the contract? If a player got a $5 million bonus for a 5 year contract, he didn't receive all of that money at once? If it was paid evenly, was that different than salary other than perhaps tax consequences?

Could be. Don't forget about the Dec. 1st signing deadline. In a few years the min. salary will be $500k - not bad at all for any young player drafted late.

As JeffNights has mentioned a few times in the past, the general sense in Detroit is that Manny Legace isn't good enough to be our #1 guy on his own. So one of the rumors flying around Detroit, been around for a while now, is the return of Chris Osgood. There was some talk of Khabibuhlin, but it sounds like he'll end up in Phoenix. The return of Osgood. Yes. Well, I can't see that ending any other way than badly, even though I think he was a fine (adequate) goalie and wasn't to blame for the Wings playoff collapses between '99-'01.

No, they get the money upfront.

I mentioned prorated because that is how they calculate annual salaries and team payrolls under the old agreement. It does not matter that there was no cap before because teams still had to do the accounting.

Got it. I would guess it work the same way in the new CBA which is very much like the NFL. I wonder how those signing bonus will be counted if a player is traded.

surprised so far about the number of players that aren't getting bought out.

I am too, but reading the quotes from the Blues president (found here: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...77&hubName=nhl) it actually makes some sense. If you think you can put a good team out on the ice without buying out players, you should. Paying these guys 2/3 of their contract is not chump change. It's real money that your spending for limited benefit. If you think you can survive with the existing contracts, I guess you should have a go at it.

Just looking at the list, for example, Columbus would appear to have a number of buyout candidates: Sanderson, Marchant, Cassels, and Richardson are slated to make over US $2 million this year. While it would seem those salaries would be high in today's NHL, I am not sure if the Blue Jackets will need to buy these guys out (they are at $19 million with 14 players signed, not including Nash). I guess different teams will take a different approach and it's early yet, but the next few days will continue to be interesting.

Also, I think some of the teams, might try to trade these high priced players instead of buying them out. There are some teams with cap room that would be willing to take these players at these salary levels for a year or 2.

This is probably true. That's another thing I have been thinking about. Trading has always been one of the highlights of the NHL. Each year a large number of players move via trade, there have been huge trades in the past, and the trade deadline day has always been one of the biggest/most exciting days on the NHL calendar. Obviously the cap will change much of this.

Cap considerations will play a huge role in trades, which will make them more difficult to pull off. I think I read somewhere that the trade deadline will be moved up 20 (or 40?) days in the season. This will also have the obvious effect of limiting the number of trades because more teams will still "be in the hunt." While I will miss the madness and excitement of the trade deadline of old, I think these will be good things. In recent years many of the "big trades" in the NHL were less about hockey and more about $ (the haves and the have nots). It all sorta of started with the Jagr to Washington deal. You then had the Kovalev trade, the Lang deal, and many others. I will be glad to see these types of trades on the decline, if they will exist at all.

The only fear I have is that trades will become, in large part, NBA type deals where the basketball rationale for a deal often takes a back-seat to the concept of trading contracts. While this could happen to some extent, I don't think we'll have to worry too much about it. Given the size of NHL rosters, it is unlikely that a small number of tradeable players will ever constitute a large amount of cap space. Or so I hope that will prevent it, since I have never been very clear on just how the NBA cap system works.

Jagr considers playing in Russia.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2116505


As for the buyouts, I would also add that teams cannot sign players they've bought out for the '05-06 season. So maybe teams are hesistant to buyout a player thinking they would not be able to replace them (would the 2 or 3 players you can sign give you the benefits of the one you bought out).

yeah, I don't care much about the NBA, but I would really hate to see where a team acquires a player JUST because he is overpaid and in his last contract year, meaning he'll be freeing up cap space. I don't want to see that in the NHL at all.

TSN has got a few interesting reports.

Stars are interested in Derian Hatcher.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...81&hubName=nhl

Sabres are trying to trade Miroslav Satan

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...80&hubName=nhl

Scott Niedermeyer's agent believes his client will become a FA and that he expects to get close to the max from some team.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...83&hubName=nhl

And apparently Pavel Datsuk is trying to use playing in Russia to get the Red Wings to pony up.


Don't know why the Stars are interested in Hatcher, he looked really old and slow when he was in Detroit.

I also don't understand Buffalo's thinking. Satan is an RFA and you don't plan on giving him a qualifying offer, so you think a team will trade for him so that they can make a qualifying offer? Why wouldn't teams just wait 'til he becomes an UFA and then make their offer? They wouldn't have to give up anything then.

I don't see Niedermeyer getting close to the max. The Rangers are more interested in Rafalski.