NHL cap will present new issues for teams

[Madferret]

NHL cap will present new issues for teams
Canadian Press

Don Waddell and John Ferguson have different challenges ahead of them when the NHL re-opens for business this summer. Waddell, the Atlanta Thrashers GM, will have plenty of salary cap room but still faces two difficult signings in restricted free-agent stars Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk.

Ferguson, Waddell's counterpart with the Toronto Maple Leafs, will likely be looking to cut before he thinks of adding. The Thrashers have 12 players under contract for next season at just $14.36 million US, taking into account the 24 per cent salary rollback that will be part of the new collective bargaining agreement.

The Leafs, in contrast, have eight players under contract at $27 million.

With the upper limit on a salary cap expected to be anywhere between $35 million to $40 million in the new deal, the Leafs don't have a whole lot of cash to fill out two thirds of their roster. That leaves two candidates for potential buyouts: winger Owen Nolan or even netminder Ed Belfour.

The fans' choice, judging from radio call-in shows in Toronto, would be 33-year-old Nolan and his $5.6-million salary (rollback included) for 2005-06. "That's premature at this time," Ferguson said Thursday when asked about Nolan. "We are projecting and analysing a number of scenarios."

Belfour is 40 and due to make $4.56 million (rollback included) next season. On the other hand, who else will play goal for Toronto? The Leafs could also create room by approaching captain Mats Sundin, slated to earn $6.84 million (rollback included) next season, to renegotiate his contract in order to create more cap room. Sundin, 34, has three more years on his deal, maybe make it four or five?

J.P. Barry, the agent for both Nolan and Sundin, says it's too early to speculate on those scenarios.

"I never comment on hypotheticals," he said from Calgary. "It seems like everyone in Leaf Nation is a GM these days as we all wait patiently for a new CBA. The Leafs, and every NHL club, aren't talking about their roster strategies because they don't know the rules that will govern our interaction. Since neither of us possesses a crystal ball, we will simply have to prepare ourselves for every possibility."

The bottom line, regardless of what the Leafs end up doing, is that spending will no longer be the only way to upgrade the team each off-season. "I've said for some time that we're going to need to compete differently under any new economic model," Ferguson said. "It's evident that the rules will change and we need to adapt...REST OF ARTICLE. (http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=128710)


Poses some interesting questions. Which of those Leafers has a pretty good chance of getting bought out? I'm thinking Nolans tenure was a failed effort. I have the benefit of hind-site on my side on that statement though. When he got traded I actually starting worrying about another tough power forward Ottawa has a hard time containing.

[Leafs_Fa_Life]

One question: Would a team be able to resign a player after they buy him out?

[KB in Kelowna]

One question: Would a team be able to resign a player after they buy him out?

That is an interesting question. I suspect one of the reasons the negotiations are taking as long as they are is that they want to close loopholes like that and make the CBA idiot proof and stop some owners and gm's from making side door deals that get around cap restrictions. It was these loopholes that doomed the last CBA and created the mess that the league got itself into.

[J.R.]

Cap will give Leafs fits
Mike Ulmer writes that club could pay four players about the
same Buffalo will pay 15

By MIKE ULMER

ONCE, FOR reasons known only to Him, God decided to span the gap between the hockey haves and the hockey have- not.

He called it the Peace Bridge.

Those days are coming back, and not in a way that will please fans of the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs are about to pay, and dearly, for their fruitless moves to capture a Stanley Cup.

It was a spirited try, and now, with the matrix new economic framework set to be superimposed on the game, it's time to pay up.

To appreciate the Maple Leafs situation, consider the Buffalo Sabres, maybe the most salary cap-ready franchise in the NHL.

The Leafs have $27 million US in salary committed to eight players. The Sabres have seven players signed at a combined cost of about $7.5 million. That's nearly a $20 million difference which, you know, is a lot.

The Leafs certainly have a better team for their money: Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan, Ed Belfour, Bryan McCabe, Tomas Kaberle, Ken Klee, Darcy Tucker and Matt Stajan.

Still, it must feel a little disquieting to the Bay Street money men that the top four players on the roster account for $20 million toward a cap that many are pegging at $36 million.

Even if, as my colleague Steve Simmons wisely noted, a buyout clause will allow the Leafs to purge Nolan's $5.6 million salary without affecting the cap, the Leafs are in a bind. Their top three, Sundin ($6.8 million); Belfour ($4.56 million); and McCabe ($3.45 million) account for nearly 40% of their cap room.

As for low cost replacements available from the minors ... ah, no.

The Leafs are hoping Kyle Wellwood and perhaps Ian White can stick but neither prospect looks like a lock.

Two years ago, when all signs were beginning to point to a lengthy lockout, Sabres GM Darcy Regier began to shuffle personnel with an eye to the brave new world projected by league commissioner Gary Bettman.

"We decided we wanted to create as much flexibility and as few commitments as we could, not knowing what the new collective bargaining agreement would look like," the Sabres GM said.

And so the Sabres, who haven't had a playoff date since they traded away goalie Dominik Hasek in 2001, continued to play the have-nots.

UNDERACHIEVING

Underachieving forward Curtis Brown and defenceman Rhett Warrener were traded. Talented defenceman Alexei Zhitnik was kept but his contract not extended. Regier looked on as the Leafs acquired Nolan for Alyn McCauley and prime-time prospect Brad Boyes and watched the Leafs trade a first-rounder in 2004, a 2005 second-rounder and prospects Maxim Kondratiev and Jarkko Immonen for Brian Leetch.

The Sabres will use $7.5 million to pay goalie Mika Noronen, defencemen Jay McKee, Rory Fitzpatrick and Dimitri Kalinin (provided Kalinin does the expected and exercises his player option). Forwards Chris Drury, Andrew Peters and Adam Mair also are under contract.

Unlike the Maple Leafs, the Sabres have a handful of young players who can step into the lineup. Goalie Ryan Miller is ready for prime time and that should allow the club to cut its ties with Martin Biron, who played for $2.8 million in 2003-2004.

DEPTH

Jeff Jillson played in the American League and will be a depth defenceman for less than $1 million. Kitchener Rangers graduate Derek Roy should be ready to step into the lineup and gifted goalscorer Thomas Vanek looks ready as well.

The Sabres can qualify as many of their first- or second- line Group 2 free agents as they like. They can return Maxim Afinogenov, Daniel Briere, J-P Dumont and Jochen Hecht to fill out their top two lines for another $6.1 million.

That's a core of 15 players at, say, $15 million. As it stands now, that's what the Leafs will direct to Sundin, Nolan, Belfour and McCabe.

And the Sabres control their fate. They know a buyer's market looms for teams with the most cap room. Regier said he doesn't find the notion that 40% of the players in the league will change teams out of line.

"That doesn't seem outrageous. I've seen figures that about 20% of the league moves over the course of a a regular year," Regier said.

He even has sympathy for his colleagues in Toronto.

"Teams like Toronto had different circumstances than us. They were really in the thick of it and had a tremendous club," he said.

Not anymore.

http://torontosun.canoe.ca/Sports/Hockey/2005/06/24/1102809-sun.html

[Madferret]

Ulmer sure likes his Sabres eh?

[Mel]

I posted some text in the Rangers forum, explaining that Holik and Kasparitis are likely to be bought out.

According to that article (http://www.hockeystation.com/showthread.php?t=602) teams are not allowed to re-sign players if they choose to buy them out.

You either keep them and pay what they have coming (after rollback) - or exercise the buyout option, in which case you lose the player's rights.

[scorpionn]

If thats the case, I can definately see them buying out Owen Nolan.

Belfour might be a possibility, depending on the UFA goalies available. Something will need to be done to get under cap. Perhaps some players may offer to restructure their contracts for the good of the team.

[Leafs_Fa_Life]

You either keep them and pay what they have coming (after rollback) - or exercise the buyout option, in which case you lose the player's rights.

Well in that case, bye bye Owen, Klee and maybe Eddie :wave:

Another thing, I wonder if teams would be able to restructure contracts like they do in the NFL. That way high priced vets like Sundin could reduce their cap number, and in return the Leafs could extend the term of his contract.

[Amoroq]

This whole thing was to bring the low end closer to the high end. This new deal appears to put a huge burden on teams such as the leafs, rangers, flyers, etc. Yes it was their own doing but they worked within the rules and shouldn't be punished for it.

Forget for a minute that I am a fan of a high spending team, the new deal was/is to make the entire league stable, thats been the mantra. If there isn't a grace period that would be unfair.

Something tells me that there will be a one time, first year law that allows the teams mentioned to compete in the first year of the deal. You can't allow the pendulum(sp) to sway completly to the other side. There needs to be a happy medium.