2015-2016 NHL Thread

[CarltonTheBear]

Mike Fisher is the new captain in Nashville. Interesting choice on a team full of young stars.

I'll fully admit to not knowing whether or not some of those young stars are ready to take on a bigger leadership role, but Shea Weber was a pretty huge deal in Nashville. It'd almost be like trying to name a new C after Sundin left here. Probably not a bad idea to go with more of a stop-gap measure.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Sounds like the Flames are playing hardball with Johnny Gaudreau:

The Calgary Sun has learned the chasm between what the Flames are offering their franchise player and what Gaudreau?s camp is looking for is $1.5 million annually.

Sources say Gaudreau?s agent, Lewis Gross, is asking for a payday in the $8-million range while the Flames are pushing to pay between what Sean Monahan signed for ($6.375 million annual average value) and what captain Mark Giordano makes (a team-high $6.75 million AAV).

It?s an intriguing difference of opinion but the battle revolves almost entirely around the fact that with two years of experience, Gaudreau has very few rights as per his restricted free agent status.

Therefore, the Flames are pushing to pay what they consider market value, while Gross is looking for a superstar payday.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/09/08/gap-between-johnny-gaudreau-camp-and-flames-in-contract-negotiations-as-high-as-15-million

 

[Kin]

Sounds like the Flames are playing hardball with Johnny Gaudreau:

It might not be this year or even next but at some point soon a really good player is going to come along and not be willing to take a hit for the team and it's going to do very interesting things to the league's salary structure.

Like, what if McDavid is a serious Art Ross/Hart Trophy candidate this year and goes into his RFA negotiations looking for something resembling market value?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

It might not be this year or even next but at some point soon a really good player is going to come along and not be willing to take a hit for the team and it's going to do very interesting things to the league's salary structure.

Like, what if McDavid is a serious Art Ross/Hart Trophy candidate this year and goes into his RFA negotiations looking for something resembling market value?

I'd love to see McDavid go into negotiations and ask for the maximum salary. At this point it seems pretty darn likely that he'll be the best player in the game 2 years from now, so what would stop him from asking for that? That's why there's a maximum salary. It's nuts that nobody has even gotten close to it since the cap was introduced.

But since this is hockey he'll probably just sign a long-term deal at $9.7mil or something.

 

[pnjunction]

I think what keeps players away from the maximum is simply that no one player is worth that much, you could be talking something like $16M of $80M cap in a couple of years.  The hard cap means that even if they landed it they could be dooming themselves to a career of mediocre results as the team struggles to build around them with only 80% of the cap left. 

Pittsburgh is probably down to 1 or 0 cups if Malkin and Crosby demanded $10M+, and mighty Chicago might have trouble contending again with $21M in Toews/Kane unless the cap goes up quite a bit before those guys are winding down.  Still it's Edmonton and Chiarelli so anything can happen, it would be entertaining for him to throw that 'offer' down and see if they take it.

 

[Kin]

I think what keeps players away from the maximum is simply that no one player is worth that much, you could be talking something like $16M of $80M cap in a couple of years.  The hard cap means that even if they landed it they could be dooming themselves to a career of mediocre results as the team struggles to build around them with only 80% of the cap left.

I don't really buy that. The margin for error would be slimmer, sure, but the idea that reallocating 5 million or so from a secondary player to a star would seriously alter a team's ability to compete doesn't really wash. Would Pittsburgh be a "mediocre" team without Patric Hornqvist? Or would Chicago be one without Anisimov?

Conversely, is it realistic to think that a team faced with the prospect of dealing with a player looking for 15 million per could look at using that money on other players as a way to improve the team? What combination of players could you sign on the UFA market for 15 million that would be better than one Sidney Crosby?

As to what a player is worth I think it's pretty reasonable to say that if someone like Crosby or Toews was a UFA and willing to go to the highest bidder they almost certainly would get offers in the 12-14 per range. Because in terms of dollars in and dollars out, they'd almost certainly contribute at least that to whatever team they were on.