The State of Free Agency in the NHL

The long term contract, it’s become a staple of the NHL for almost a decade now. This is the way a franchise "beats" the cap ceiling set after the lockout in ‘04/'05. Circumvention of the cap is in fact, “prohibited” within the NHL.  This, in terms, is supposed to ban teams from handing out Mega-Multiyear contracts to the top free agents on the market that make them basically irrelevant deals at the end of their careers i.e- Ilya Kovalchuk.  

The New Jersey Devils were the ones who made the circumvention of the cap relevant in the modern game. They signed Kovalchuk to a 17 year deal which would pay him $102 million throughout.  Problem with this is no one expects a player to be relevant actively playing in the league at the age of 44 (which is when this deal expires).

 Needless to say, the league did not act to kindly to this deal and vetoed it.  New Jersey found a loop hole in the system by tweaking a few numbers, and was able to sign their man to this long term deal. Kovalchuk  will make around $1-$4million/year in the last 4 years of the contract, a far cry from the $11million he’ll be making from 2013-2018 (frontloaded deal).

The trend has continued. With the likes of Roberto Luongo, Sydney Crosby, Jeff Carter, Brad Richards, and most recently the Parise/Suter combo (guess we'll refer them as an item for the next 13 years).  We’ve seen team needs begin to exceed available talent level for market value- Therein lies the problem.

The entire hockey world came to a standstill while they waited for (in the moment “superstars”) Parise and Suter to make up their minds and decide they would sign with the Wild.  Teams with bids and interest in these two players would wait on their decisions before seeing if they would have to go after the remaining free agents. 

When you lose out on the bidding war for the top guys, the domino effect takes place.  Parise/Suter are good players, they’re top level talent, but there is a problem when they receive Sydney Crosby caliber money without nearly having the same resume or skill-set as their counterpart.

Mid level talents like PA Parentau, Olli Jokinen, Jiri Hudler, Brandon Prust, Jaromir Jagr (now at 40 years old), Matt Carle etc… are receiving some seriously UNECESSARY big time money for their services.  This is not a knock against these guys; they are good at what they do.  The problem is there is an alarming lack of talent to match the market demand.  Teams have big holes that need to be filled, and the available talent to do so is scarce, causing the pieces to all fall as they may.

SIDE NOTE: Matt Carle ($5.5 AAV) & Olli Jokinen ($4.5 AAV) will be making more money next season than the likes of; Ryan Callahan, Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski, Claude Giroux, Dustin Brown, Kris Letang, Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, and Ryan McDonagh.

One big talent goes, over-pay the next best player to make sure you fill your teams need, and on down the line until the deals being handed out seem worse and worse. This is what free agency has become.  There are going to be a lot of talks within the new Collective Bargaining Agreement meetings this summer to find ways to nullify and prevent these massive contracts from being handed out. 

Nothing can be done about a team needing a player, and putting a high bid on the best ones that are available.  It’s the nature of the game, and explains how teams get stuck into bad contracts (Wade Redden, Ville Leino, Scott Gomez) these deals handicap teams and set them back competitively in the future.

It truly makes you think;

Are there really any winners or losers in the off-season anymore?  When was the last time the “winner” of free agency translated into a Stanley Cup the following season?  This isn’t baseball, the money is not the motive when it comes to these guys going out and playing through bloodied faces and bad backs.  It’s time the game, from a business standpoint, becomes refocused so it can keep its integrity. 

@NYRCenterIce

NHL Playoffs: The Second Season

NHL- Every team in the NHL plays all season long for their shot at the Stanley Cup.  For 16 deserving teams, that chance at glory begins tomorrow night.  It is the oldest trophy in North American sports coming into fruition in 1893. From the moment you lay your eyes on the cup, it is a mesmerizing object that leaves you in a rare moment of awe.  It is what every hockey player has dreamed of winning since the moment they were introduced to the sport.  It is the toughest trophy in all of sports to win.

The remaining teams have all played 82 games, they are now trying to be the first to win just 16 more.  The winning team must win four best of seven series to hoist the sport’s Holy Grail.  After a grueling regular season which sees some of the most physical play in any of the top 4 sporting leagues, each team is readying themselves to embark on a (hopefully) long, grueling path to the cup.  It is truly astonishing the amount of effort that these guys put forth on a nightly basis during the long regular season.  Somehow that play is elevated to an unworldly level of intensity come postseason time.

The greatest player to ever play the game, Wayne Gretzky once recalled a moment after his Edmonton team lost their first Stanley Cup appearance to the New York Islanders. Looking around the locker room after his team had lost, he felt that they could have gone out there to play another game.  The same could not be said about the Champions.  They were all wrapped in ice bags from head to toe, getting stitched, and popping shoulders back into place. Gretzky learned, at that very moment, what it took to become a true champion.

It takes everything you have, 23 teammates bonded into brothers, literally giving their blood, sweat, and tears to win a prize that they’ve coveted for their entire lives.  Gretzky went on to win 4 Cups of his own.  Safe to say, lesson learned.

That’s what makes this tournament so great.  It’s not about who has the most talented team, who compiled the most wins in the regular season.  Its about which team is willing to go out and sacrifice absolutely everything they have to attain greatness.  Just thinking about what these player’s put into each and every shift, the atmosphere of the sold out arenas, the will and determination put forward, truly leaves goose-bumps up and down my spine. 

So here’s to the waiving towels, the bone-shattering hits, the amazing goals, and to every team laying it all on the line to get their names engraved on the coveted Stanley Cup.  The playoffs are a start to the second season because it truly is a whole different animal.  If you’re not a hockey fan, give it a shot, I can truly promise you one thing; you will never experience anything in the world of sports like playoff hockey.

This video sums up everything there is to know about a hockey player, and why they play the game.  Enjoy the cup finals, and may the best team win (they always do):