Get the Money Now
Money seems to be flying around the new NHL. Salary cap be damned, some teams are throwing money at free agents ever since the market opened on Monday.
Players looking to wait it out are going to be in for a surprise - the money’s going now and there is a limited supply. Wait too long and you’ll be signing a low-figure (probably 1-year) contract with the team of your choice or you’ll be playing for one of the few teams with cap room left after the real-world fantasy draft is over - and the location may be far from your top choice.
Wondering who the top agent in the NHL is? Could be Gilles Lupien, Martin Lapointe‘s agent. After a career best 57 points with the Detroit Red Wings in the 2000-01 season, Lapointe signed a a four-year, $22 million contract with the Boston Bruins. In three seasons with the Bruins Lapointe topped out at 40 points in 68 games in 2001-02 and followed that season with 18 pts in 59 games and 25 pts in 78 games during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 campaigns respectively.
So what happens? Lapointe signs a three-year, $7.2 million contract in the salary-capped NHL today with the Chicago Blackhawks. That’s an average of $2.4 mil a year for the mathematically challenged. $2.4 mil a year for a player who averaged 0.4 pts a game. Jes G?blez has an opinion about that, although it’s pretty clear to guess what he thinks about it.
Chicago already signed Adrian Aucoin to a four-year, $16 million deal and also gave Jaroslav Spacek a one-year, $2.5 million contract today with Lapointe.
Why so much cash? Apparently there are some who don’t want to play for Chicago, even for more money than other teams are offering. Not a big surprise there, Chicago went from strong to weak fast and let every star they had go in the 90s and owner Bill Wirtz seemed to care little about letting a good hockey market die off (note: Chicago is still a good hockey market, just not a good Blackhawks market at the moment). So now the only way to lure in players is to overpay them. In case you’re wondering, the Blackhawks still don’t televise their home games. Amazing the NHL can’t push them towards doing so to restore a relationship with the fans.
Many criticized the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing Adam Foote to three-year, $13.8 million deal - but how else are they going to get a high profile player to come to a market like Columbus?
They’ve got cap room, they’ve got young players signed and they might even get a few extra bucks from the league - overpriced or not, they’re trying to build their clubs into contenders in non-traditional or spoiled markets and spending cash - at least at the beginning - may be the only way to encourage players to come. Do it right and you’ve got a powerhouse hockey team that others may sign cheap contracts to play for in the future.
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