Welcome to the New NHL, and that has nothing to do with the latest promises of an obstruction crackdown, or with the tweaked rules designed to open the ice and create more offensive opportunities.
Rather, that’s about the difficult decisions forced upon some franchises and opportunities opened for others as the $39 million salary cap unleashes a leveling effect in the early days of the new collective bargaining agreement.
High-payroll franchises had to pare in places and often couldn’t be big-time contestants for other teams’ unrestricted free agents, giving previous financial lightweights an advantage. Also, the lost 2004-05 season ate up many contracts, leaving such teams as Boston and Chicago with minimal obligations for next season, yet the need to fill rosters and also get at least to the $21.5 million salary “floor” that came with the upper-end cap.
How much has the money game changed?
Check out Chicago.
The Blackhawks, previously much derided for their financial conservatism – and that’s putting it nicely – stepped up and landed two of the premier free agents, defenseman Adrian Aucoin, formerly of the New York Islanders, and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who helped lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004. Both deals were for four years, with Aucoin’s worth $16 million and Khabibulin’s $27 million. With new general manager Dale Tallon doing the negotiating, Chicago also signed Martin Lapointe, lately of Boston but best known for his years with Detroit, to a three-year contract, totaling $7.2 million.
Yes, the Blackhawks.
On a conference call after Khabibulin’s signing, Tallon proclaimed, “The Blackhawks are back!”
Other major signings, including many involving teams often financially overwhelmed in the free-agent market in the past, included: Adam Foote going to Columbus, Paul Kariya to Nashville, Ziggy Palffy and Sergei Gonchar to Pittsburgh, Bobby Holik to Atlanta, Tony Amonte and Darren McCarty to Calgary, Pavol Demitra to Los Angeles, Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts to Florida, Ray Whitney to Carolina and Mirsosav Satan to the Islanders. Holik, Amonte, Whitney and McCarty had been bought out by their former teams, making them bargains, while Satan didn’t receive a qualifying offer from Buffalo, freeing him up.
Even bigger were the signings of New Jersey defenseman Scott Niedermayer by Anaheim and Peter Forsberg by Philadelphia. The Flyers were the only previous big spenders to make eye-popping moves, with their landing of Forsberg, Derian Hatcher, Mike Rathje and Chris Therien, and they subsequently had to trade Jeremy Roenick to Los Angeles to clear cap room.
Also, elite defenseman Chris Pronger and center Michael Peca ended up with Edmonton, giving the Oilers new prominence in the Northwest Division.
All that and more happened in a week.
At the news conference to announce Foote’s signing, Columbus general manager Doug MacLean noted, “You see a much more competitive balance emerging.”
In Denver, the losses of Forsberg and Foote set off tremors. Both had received four-year offers from the Avalanche, starting at $1.5 million a season and escalating from there.
Forsberg’s offer totaled $13.5 million over four seasons for an average of nearly $3.4 million, which would have been his “cap” number. The talks with the Avalanche never got far, and another issue was Forsberg’s insistence on nothing longer than a two-year contract with any team at this stage of his career.
Foote’s offer from the Avs totaled $12 million over four seasons, for a cap number/average of $3 million. And Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix insisted those offers – including the $1.5 million starting points – were the best he could do.
“The maximum we had for ’05-06 was a million-five each,” Lacroix said.
Under the new collective bargaining agreement, maximum annual raises are limited to 100 percent, so if Lacroix stuck to that, the highest he could have gone for Forsberg and Foote in the second season was $3 million.
After losing Forsberg and Foote, the Avalanche signed center Pierre Turgeon, wingers Brad May and Andrew Brunette, and defenseman Patrice Brisebois; re-signed winger Milan Hejduk to a five-year, $19 million deal; and announced winger Alex Tanguay and defenseman Kurt Sauer had signed their one-year qualifying offers.
It would be incorrect to portray this all as a sudden implementation of budgetary standards in the NHL. Even high-payroll franchises, including Detroit and the Avalanche, previously made personnel decisions based on economic realities. Players remaining with one franchise for most, or all, of their careers have become increasingly rare, even under the former CBA. Also, talk of new-found parity ignores the fact that in the past three seasons, six different teams have played in the Western and Eastern Conference finals – the maximum possible.
“I just think it’s too early to rush to judgment,” said Don Baizley, Forsberg’s and Kariya’s agent. “All we’ve had is the unrestricted guys, and we’re now heading into the restricted guys this week. There are a whole bunch of players, real good players, who haven’t been dealt with yet.”
Restricted free agents Hejduk and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla have signed long-term deals with their teams, but they’re in a minority.
“There’s been virtually nothing done in that category of players,” Baizley said. “I know everyone will want to have a view about this (new system) by the time the season starts, but we really won’t know until we go through a year or two.”
The threshold age for unrestricted free agency drops to 29 in 2006-07, then to 28 and 27 over the next two seasons. The other factor is projections of NHL revenues could turn out to be overly optimistic, and that’s significant because the $39 million cap this season is based on the players receiving 54 percent of revenues. So the cap could go down after this season.
For now, though, the cap appears to be having its desired effect.
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
