The Capitals did as promised: they were major players in the free agent market this offseason. And it’s no sure thing that they’re done dealing, as pursuit of RFAs via trades has been a stated goal of the team for months.
I’m not saying that Michael Nylander, Viktor Kozlov and Tom Poti were the absolute best hockey players up for grabs; but the signings represent smart moves that directly address the team’s needs without mortgaging the future. Most importantly, the moves improve the team immediately while keeping enough funds handy to lock in Ovechkin and Semin — I’d rather see the team ante up for those two over any of the big-name forwards in this year’s UFA crop. The Los Angeles Kings took a similar approach to the Capitals’, signing pivot Michal Handzus (four years, $16M), wingers Ladislav Nagy (one year, $3.75M ) and Kyle Calder (two years, $5.5M) and D Tom Preissing (four years, $11M). Another relatively responsible restocking in this offseason of big spending.
How did the other 28 teams fare? Well, let’s review a few of the notables. Rather than a typical grading system, I’ll attempt a Hollywood Starlet system instead: Scarlett Johansson, Lindsay Lohan, or Nicole Richie.
Scarlett Johansson
Undeniably attractive, smart, and sexy. And Scarlett ain’t bad either. Some teams made just the right moves, not only in their choice of players but also with the deals they offered. Rather than spending like Donald Trump’s ex-wives, certain teams found the right player(s) for the right price.
Avalanche fans will be thrilled with Ryan Smyth’s arrival in Colorado. By bringing in Smyth (5 years, $31M) and Scott Hannan (4 years, $18M), the Avs get two rough-and-tumble players whose styles fit the team perfectly. 31-year-old Smyth’s five-year deal is not only a fairly affordable cap hit, but a reasonable duration as compared to some other signings.
The Detroit Red Wings continued their less-is-more approach by signing just one notable player in the first two days of UFA-Fest: Brian Rafalski. After losing 38-year-old Mathieu Schneider to Ducks, the Wings managed to upgrade while not losing a dime by signing 33-year-old Rafalski. His $6M per year for five years is about what the Ducks are paying Schneider per year; yet Rafalski is five years younger. In addition, Rafalski notched 55 points last season (30 on the PP) while playing the Devils’ ultra-conservative system. One would think he’ll perform even better in the Motor City’s more exciting style of play. Once again, Detroit’s management manages to make the right moves without breaking the bank; it’s no wonder they’re perennial contenders.
Lindsay Lohan
Some teams went on benders to rival Ms. Lohan’s. The New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers signed big name players to obscene contracts — making sexy but crazy moves. Like Tyrone Biggums with crack cocaine, neither team could resist the allure of spending with abandon. Clearly both teams’ rosters are dramatically improved for next season; but this sort of freewheeling spending backfires more often than not. They both are trying to buy championships; and in hockey, that rarely works.
Philadelphia began their binge early, throwing crazy pre-July 1 deals at Kimmo Timmonen and Scott Hartnall — both appealing but now-overpaid players – whose contracts are crazy not so much in terms of annual salary as they are in terms of duration. Then the Flyers topped themselves by giving spear-to-the-groin Daniel Briere an eight year deal. Each of these players is undeniably talented; but the dollars and duration of these contracts makes one wonder if Bobby Clarke is still in Philadelphia, working the levers as the man behind the curtain.
Mind you, the Rangers’ attempt to make the New York Yankees seem like cheapskates is just as stunning. Snagging both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez is quite a feat to be sure. But $7M per year to Drury, combined with a $51.5M seven-year deal to Scott Gomez (who has exceeded 20 goals just once in seven years of play), is insanity.
Including Jaromir Jagr, they now have spent over a third of their salary cap on three players, and they have not signed Brendan Shannahan, Sean Avery, or Henrik Lundqvist yet. Yikes. One wonders how long it will take Jagr to complain about the loss of Nylander if his adjustment to Gomez/Drury is less than perfect. In fact, it sounds like he’s already laying the groundwork for future complaining.
Nicole Richie
So far, the other 2/3 of New York was brutally pillaged by free agency’s raiders. Like Nicole Richie, the Sabres and Islanders are skeletal remnants who practically qualify for Federal disaster assistance.
The Sabres lost both their co-captains and seem to have returned to their spendthrift ways. After their season of excellence was eclipsed by the Ottawa Senators, Sabres management let both captains walk away with apparently minimal effort to stop them. With intense league-wide interest in both Drury and Briere, nobody expected the Sabres to retain both players. But losing both is a crushing blow to the team, not just in terms of skill but of leadership as well. Management’s half-hearted contract offers, particularly to local hero Drury, indicate a “well, we tried” attitude settling in with Buffalo’s brass. Here’s one Sabres fan writing for ESPN who certainly feels that way
As for the Islanders, they lost Kozlov, Poti, Ryan Smyth — who turned out to be a rather expensive rental, costing two former first-round picks plus this year’s first rounder – captain Jason Smith, and Richard Zednik. They appear to be emulating the Florida Marlins, only without the championship (well, not in the past 20+ years). Next they’ll rename their arena to Nassau Mausoleum. Isles fans cannot be happy losing three of their top six scorers – and their sole UFA signing of Jon Sim is not the answer. Dark days are ahead on the Island.
And . . .
Other teams were relatively silent, most notably the Caps’ Southeast rivals. A View from the Cheap Seats looked at the Caps’ divisional foes, and is similarly unimpressed with their signings so far.
A few other moves of note: the Blues snagged Kariya and Tkachuk (a.k.a. “The St. Louis Boomerang”), the Leafs acquired Jason Blake from the decimated Islanders, and the Penguins wisely re-signed Ryan Whitney (but what’s with the Darryl Sydor signing? Shades of Philly’s Derian Hatcher mistake), and Chicago brought in Robert Lang. The Ducks overpaid Todd Bertuzzi to ensure they have someone to take stupid penalties if Pronger gets hurt. Nothing too exciting there, though the Blues are clearly looking to return to the playoffs with those veteran deals.
As for the Capitals, fans seem pretty happy about the teams’ acquisitions; some may even renounce their hockey grumpiness. The Hogs are similarly pleased, and Off Wing Opinion has some interesting quotes from the GMGM conference call.
All in all, it’s been a good couple days for Capitals bloggers and fans alike . . . with perhaps more good news on the horizon.
[Feel free to post your take as a comment -- either on the Caps' moves or other teams' signings.]
13 Comments
Absolutely hilarios post. And Nicole Richie/Skeletor could be twins!
Loved the post. You need to put Scarlett Johansson’s picture in your posts more often. Eye candy is never wrong. Hehe.
An another note, I happen to agree, I’m starting to like the new Capitals. Let’s see what they do come Opening Day.
Thanks Andy & Paul. I think Skeletor is Nicole’s chunkier cousin. And yes, eye candy never hurts . . .
As with all player acquisitions, it’s a wait-and-see until they hit the ice. But I agree: on paper at least the Caps’ moves make a lot of sense so far.
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(I always thought that Skeletor was a pretty husky guy for a skeleton…certainly isn’t hard to be huskier than Nicole “Oops-I-Just-Slipped Through-the-Floorboards” Ritchie…)
Now, back to hockey:
So it looks like we are starting to see the top-notch free agents concentrated among the usual suspects once again - not 100% so, but by and large. Personally, I thought the whole point of a salary cap was to PREVENT teams like Buffalo from bleeding talent and PREVENT teams like the Rangers and Flyers from hoarding it (and thereby driving up the price of said talent to the point where no one else can afford it).
But at $50 mil, does the salary cap mean a damned thing? For the Buffalos of the league, a cap that high is clearly only theoretical, since they don’t actually have the cash to spend anywhere near it–and, truthfully, there are only a select few clubs that do.
Is anyone else wondering why the heck the League shut down two years ago, given that its taken all of two years to get pretty much right back to where we started???
Thanks for lettin’ me rant. I’d be interested in your thoughts, folks.
I may be in the minority here, but I think Pittsburgh’s moves are pretty good. Sykora will allow Recchi to slide down to the third line, and I think Sydor has a bit more get-up-and-go than Hatcher does.
As for the Rangers and Flyers, I have no problem watching them continue to self-destruct. Makes you wonder if they thought there was an NBA-style cap with lots of loopholes.
And just how high can the salary cap go? Given all the items about drops in attendance last season, is anyone else amazed it went up that much?
TW & TG, I agree that the $50M cap is a surprisingly high increase. A cap that most teams couldn’t possibly justify exceeding seems impotent. With so much of the league’s money coming from high ticket prices (and yes, the Caps are among the more reasonably priced), such a cap jump is dangerous indeed.
Still can’t believe the Flyers signed Briere for eight years. They’d better hope he doesn’t tank and/or that he never has a serious injury (gee whiz, no chance of THAT happening in eight years, is there?). I honestly don’t understand why clubs are voluntarily exposing themselves to that kind of long-term risk these days.
I mean, hell, that long-term deal for Yashin on Long Island sure worked out great, didn’t it? And does anyone seriously think that DiPietro WON’T be a liability in 10 years when he’s in his late 30s and STILL has four years to go on his contract?
Between these long contracts, the high salary cap, and the insistence on staying in obscure markets where nobody cares, I don’t get the “new” NHL’s business model. I just don’t.
Zubrus to NJD, $20.4M for six years.
Zoinks. I liked Zubie, and would have happily had him back in the Caps’ lineup as a winger… but not for that money, and not as a center (which he prefers for some reason).
Worst *&^%$ pic of LL I’ve ever seen. She looked a lot better crabwalking naked on “Family Guy”
Having watched salary caps here in Europe (I’m a displaced Caps fan), I really don’t understand why leagues bother.
Caps are there to be broken. Teams here in Britain (who had only £215,000 to spend on the entire team) found lots of ways around it. One of the more entertaining involved paying players extra money every week to run the zamboni. Rumor has it they each did so once. It must have come out to something like £500 per lap per player. Several teams use player coaches as that offsets part of the player-coach’s salary. Others have players “working” for the rink or pay their accomodation.
Big cap, little cap - doesn’t matter, there will always be creative team accountants.
Last night on Washington Post Live, McPhee said that the Caps had made offers to nine free agents, with (obviously) three of them accepted. Any guesses who the other six were?
I’m thinking that they at least made offers to Gomez, Drury and Briere, with the other three calls going to Rafalski, Smyth, and Hannan.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Those are likely offer candidates TG. You know they’d have had to at least make offers to Smyth, Gomez & Drury, though I doubt they were among the final two or three teams in the final bidding war. Still, when players of that caliber are available, you’ve gotta give it a try.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they approached Hamrlik as well, and perhaps Mathieu Schneider. Still, I’m pretty happy with the three players they’ve acquired, and am hopeful they can make a deal for one more d-man. Even if they stand pat, this is already a much better team than last year’s.
Darren Eliot agrees about the ridiculousness of the $50M cap:
“As a league, if your cap number exceeds the reach of most member clubs and contract precedent is set for both term and dollars, economic and competitive viability as part of the post-lockout vision becomes a false promise.”
Good article overall, worth a read:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/darren_eliot/07/03/free.aqency/index.html
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