The View From Outside: How Weber Could Expose NHL’s Fatal Flaws
Posted: July 20, 2012 Filed under: Hockey | Tags: bettman, cba, daly, dreger, flyers, nhl, predators, rinne, view from outside, weber Comments OffIn case you don’t know, I live in Australia. It’s safe to say I’m not “in” the thick of the NHL action. I don’t have sources, I don’t have any friends I can share a jug of beer and talk shit about hockey with. I’m a loner, on the outside of the NHL looking in and sometimes the view is very mirky. So I’m starting a new series of posts to explain what I’m seeing from Australia and maybe try to figure out why things are the way they are. It’s The View From Outside.
I was sitting at my desk at work in the mid-afternoon yesterday when Darren Dreger’s tweet popped up on my phone.
Breaking: Shea Weber agrees to offer sheet with Philadelphia. 14 years, upwards of $100 mil. Preds have 7 days to match. Wow!!
I almost fell out of my chair (lucky it has arm rests – nice). As a Canucks fan it was a harsh hit, but that has been covered perfectly by Wyatt Arndt over at the Legion of Blog, so I won’t go on about it here. But as the details of the offer sheet started leaking it became more clear that the Predators may in fact have trouble matching the Flyers offer, strictly on a cash basis. $26 million in a single calendar year is a huge outlay of cash for 1 player on a team whose entire player payroll is currently sitting at a smidge under $41 million.
The NHL and the Players Association met today in the next round of the CBA renegotiations. NHL’s Bill Daly said the Weber offer sheet was discussed in a “light-hearted” manner. Looking from the outside, that’s a travesty.
If the Predators simply can’t afford to match the Flyers’ offer for Weber it will expose the biggest flaw in the NHL revenue sharing setup – small market teams can not afford to retain star players.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman loves his small market, southerly located teams. He also preaches parity in the league. How can he have a league with parity where his favoured southern teams can’t afford to employ the best players? When the traditional hockey powerhouses and teams lucky enough to be located in hockey crazy regions are the only teams who can afford the best players, how can small market, southern teams hope to be viable?
The Predators already lost Ryan Suter for nothing. If they get nothing but picks in return for having Shea Weber plucked from their nest by the Flyers then their viability as a franchise has to be in question. With Weber gone they will lose fans, lose season ticket holders and ultimately end up losing lots of money (not to mention end up losing lots of games as dozens of shots are directed at Pekka Rinne every night in the absence of their best defensive line).
If the Weber offer sheet was in fact joked about in the CBA negotiations then to me, looking in from the outside, the NHL is in for a world of hurt. While the rich owners are allowed to splash huge money around their GM’s and the individual players will take advantage (why wouldn’t they?) and the not-so-rich owners will have no chance of making their teams truly competitive and therefore financially viable. Gary Bettman’s dream of an NHL that is embraced in the warm states (ie. non-traditional markets) is in serious risk of collapse and they joke about the Shea Weber offer sheet? I simply don’t understand.
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Please feel free to comment below. Prove me wrong kids, prove me wrong!
Mason “Plan B” Raymond
Posted: July 10, 2012 Filed under: Vancouver Canucks | Tags: booth, canucks, kesler, mason raymond, phoenix coyotes, shane doan, vancouver Comments OffToday the Canucks announced the re-signing of forward Mason Raymond. After the team elected to take him to “cut-back” arbitration to try and pay him less this season the Canucks and Raymond came to agreement on a 1 year, $2.275 million contract. That’s a pay-cut of around $300,000.
Despite that cut I personally don’t like the re-signing, but I do understand why the Canucks have done it. You don’t let a 27 year old top 6 forward go for nothing, even if he has been disappointing for 2 years straight. You retain him and you hope you can either help turn his career around or you turn him into other assets via trade. So kudos to Gillis, you haven’t let a guy go for nothing (take THAT David Poile).
The other news to break today was that Shane Doan, perennial Phoenix Coyote, is fielding offers from other teams AND the Vancouver Canucks are reportedly on his shortlist of his preferred teams to play for. Doan is just the guy the Canucks need – top 6 power forward, natural scorer, plays right on the edge (and over it at times) and a natural leader. He would be dreamy on Kesler’s wing in a way that David Booth hasn’t been and he would hold the spot in the top 6 that has in recent times belonged to Mason Raymond.
The Canucks have a few things in their favour when it comes to signing Doan:
- Doan and Canucks Assistant GM Laurence Gilman have known each other since the old Winnipeg Jets days
- Reportedly the Canucks have been after Doan in recent times, looking to trade for the big guy. Doan knows he is wanted there
- Doan’s wife is from Kamloops BC, he is a part owner of the Kamloops Blazers (my WHL team of choice) and he still spends parts of summers there
- The Canucks have cap space when you factor in the impending Luongo trade
- The Canucks will be in a position to truly fight for the Stanley Cup, something Doan hasn’t had much of an opportunity to do in the desert
So let’s say the Canucks sign Doan. Where does that leave Mason Raymond? No room in the top 6 for him anymore. The 3rd line is locked up, unless they play him at centre, which is scary and…. scary (but a possibility given Kesler’s current injury status). He’s proven himself to be a useless 4th liner.
This is why Mason Raymond is “Plan B” for the Canucks. They want Doan, but they know that he’s going to get bigger offers than what they can offer and if Doan decides to finish his career on a dollar high the Canucks will miss out. But don’t worry, we still have Mason Raymond at a reasonable cap hit to slot in to the top 6.
If the Canucks land Doan there will be a lot of happy fans and I think the fans will get even happier because with Doan in the top 6 there’s no room left for Mason Raymond. He will more than likely be traded to some sucker other team that would be very happy to have his speed and falling abilities on their side.
