Collusion Or Confusion?

I read an interesting article from Tom Benjamin this morning. He was discussing a prior article written by James Mirtle, who in turn was discussing a previous topic written by Bruce Garrioch. Apparently an anonymous agent of a player yet to be signed, believes there is collusion among NHL owners trying to keep salaries down. Mr. Benjamin had this to say...

"The real issue for the fans in this story is about the continued deterioration of the quality of the product. Dennis Seidenberg, Martin Skoula and Marc-Andre Bergeron may end up going to Europe to play while the Red Wings poach the 32 year old Andy Delmore from the Hamberg Freezers of the German Elite League.

This is not a good thing, but it is a consequence of the CBA, and not a consequence of collusion."

Personally, I believe the NHL has a place for a player of Delmore's talents. On the other hand, a guy like Marc-Andre Bergeron has been tossed around the league a bit and coincidentally for a 3rd round draft pick each time. But nonetheless, I do understand Benjamin's point and his "rich get richer/poor get poorer" assessment of the new CBA.

Following the lockout, it was my opinion that the new-found importance of player salary would have a substantial effect on goaltending. Generally a team with an upper echelon goaltender these days, is shelling out upwards to 5 million dollars or more per year. Teams stuck with mediocre goaltenders are still paying at least 3 million if that goaltender is considered the starter. Back up goaltenders around the league are now bought on the cheap, typically no more than 1 million dollars per. Understandably, there is little sense in locking up a lot of money to sit on the bench 60% to 75% of the time, when you could use it on forwards or defense in order to improve holes along the way.

Last season we may have seen the last example of a "1 and 1a" goaltending system, aside from the times when a young goaltender can compete for playing time during his entry contract. There are exceptions such as in Detroit, and now on Long Island. But these are nothing more than abberations, in my opinion.

Given that there are fewer goaltending positions to hand out across the league than there are forward and defensive openings, it makes sense that the crunch would be most noticeable with them. But this "squeezing of the UFAs" is not restricted to the one position.

If we looked at the hard cap in the simplest of terms, we could expect that NHL clubs would compete hard for the cream of the UFA crop each summer. Especially, seeing how trades are no longer as easy to complete. And obviously the competition will drive up the salaries of these upper echelon players, leaving less room for the plumbers, and at times leaving them with more holes than just in their bottom six. Year after year as inflation continues to grow, if the hard cap remains relatively the same, more and more of the budgets for each of these teams will be predetermined prior to each passing Free Agent Frenzy. And ultimately that will lead to more players shipping off to Europe as well as more anonymous agents complaining that their clients aren't getting a fair shake.

Ironically in all of this, the NHL appears to be looking at another kind of collusion at the moment. The kind made between GMs and agents.

Currently the NHL has begun investigating, whether Marian Hossa’s new 12-year contract with the Blackhawks was made in good faith. Should there be evidence that both parties have no intention in fulfilling this contract in it's entirety, penalties will be bestowed upon them.

How they expect to find proof in this matter, is beyond me. But from what I've been hearing, Chicago may not be the only franchise under investigation.

I haven't yet had the time to mull over just how these "retirement contracts" may further affect budgets and the survival of the lesser-lights, but I do suspect that it will only make the rich that much richer and the poor that much poorer.