Russia Pressing
And here goes another: Havlat leaves Czech league for Russian
Referencing: Russia Starting to Stack Up
This league will probably get a few more top NHL players and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Canadian station sign a tv contract with them. If they’re smart they’ll get in on U.S. tv, even if it means getting no money for it - exposure is what’s important right now.
The above ESPN article states:
It’s believed Dynamo will pay Havlat $1.2 million for the rest of the season.
So I went to the NHLPA’s website to see what he would have been making this season, but he’s not listed on their new site. Luckily I was able to use Google’s cache to find his ID number and plug it into their new layout. So here’s Martin Havlat’s NHLPA page. They list his 2004-05 salary at $2.3 million.
So you may be thinking “hey, $1.2 million is a lot of money, but a $1.1 million paycut is a lot as well.” Perhaps, but not when you consider there’s only 36 games left on Moscow Dynamo’s schedule.
$2.3 million for 82 games = ~$28048 per game
$1.2 million for 36 games = ~$33333 per game
He’s actually being paid more per game by the Russian league.
If the NHL wants to retain the world’s top talent a hard cap is not in their best interest when there are alternatives out there. This is one huge difference between the NFL and the NHL - the NFL has no real competition, the NHL does.
Comments:
the problem with Russian hockey is that it’s about twice as boring and defensive as NHL hockey. A 2-1 game is pretty normal and many offensive players (from Czechia and Slovakia) have gone to Russia and have given up after just a few games (or have been let go) because the style is so boring and stifling…the money is good, but the hockey is not. It would be better to broadcast a more offensive league than the Russian League.
Posted by Jes G?lbez on Nov 12, 2004 at 11:11 AM
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