James Piper - Entries on Hockey

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

...see, I do have some good ideas...

ast week I wrote an entry on the issue of a falling salary cap number in the NHL. The falling cap means some teams will have less room than they'd like to fill out their roster. I suggested teams pay a salary that is a percentage of the cap instead of a flat amount. I sent the following question to the Toronto Star hockey reporter:

Q: If an NHL team is worried about a falling cap number and committing dollars to a free agrent which squeezes room for other players, why not sign contracts where the salary is a percentage of the cap number and not a flat amount. It probably makes sense to assign all players a percentage of the cap and you don't have to worry about being squeezed. (Provided the GM isn't Max Bialystock and his assistant isn't Leo Bloom.)

A: Yes, if it were only so that we knew those who have run the Leafs for the past 40 years were simply channeling The Producers. It would all make so much more sense.

Basically, what you’re suggesting is an interesting idea, but not legal under the current collective bargaining agreement. Each player must have defined salary and number for cap purposes. The only way in which a percentage of the cap can be used is to generate the maximum salary allowable, which can be no more than 20 per cent of the maximum cap figure for any individual.

I would someone at the NHL was thinking when put the CBA together.

Posted 2009/03/31 at 18h28ET in Hockey. [View single entry]

Saturday, March 21, 2009

...NHL GMs in a jam of falling cap...

he NHL works under a cap system--all teams are limited in the total amount they can pay their players. The cap number is based on league revenues which come from three sources: gate receipts, media rights and licensing. With the downturn in the economy, the revenues for the 2009-10 season will surely fall and with it the cap number. It may even fall in the year after that.

Current player contracts were signed with the notion of an ever increasing cap number. It would be possible therefore for a team to have a roster in place that is at or under the cap for this year, but be over next year.

Then there is the issue of signing free agents in the summer. Teams usually spend big dollars on free agents. Teams could be a position where they sign a player or two and are left with no cap room.

The solution? Sign the free agents to a contract where the player gets a percentage of the cap instead of a flat amount. If the cap goes down, the salary goes down and the team is protected. In fact, all player contracts would be a percentage of the cap.

Why is no one talking about this approach? It makes sense to me.

Posted 2009/03/21 at 08h05ET in Hockey. [View single entry]

Saturday, April 21, 2007

...Crosby only has two choices about the World championship and saying I'm not going isn't one of them...

hen the Pittsburgh Penguins lost their fourth game of the first round of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs to Ottawa the obvious question became: Would Sidney Crosby play at the World Championships?

There's no doubt Steve Yzerman, this year's General Manager for Team Canada, would love to see him on the team.

The are only two options for Crosby: play or feign an injury.

He can't say no. For good or bad, if he declined to play, said "I don't want to go", many wouldn't forget it and many would use it to take shots at him and since he has the potential for a Wayne Gretzky like career, he has to avoid a backlash.

I am therefore not surprised to see today he announced he won't be going. He's been playing with a fracture in his foot.

To be expected.

Posted 2007/04/21 at 18h29ET in Hockey. [View single entry]

Saturday, March 10, 2007

...Chris Simons' attack brings out the worst in hockey fans...

n Thursday, March 8th, Chris Simon of the New York Islanders thought he was a baseball player instead of a hockey player. Thought his stick was a bat and Ryan Hollweg's head a baseball. With two hands and one swing, Simon smashed his stick into Hollweg's face.

It was a repulsive and barbarous act that highlights the worst aspects of hockey.

There can be no justification for his attack. It was criminal, yet to hear some callers on the FAN 590 in Toronto, incidents like this were bound to happen because of the instigator rule.

They argue that if the instigator rule were removed, the players could police themselves. They could drop their gloves at will and everything would be fine. But it wouldn't be fine.

Chris Simon took matters into his own hands and swung his stick. Swinging his fists instead simply eliminates the stick.

What they are really saying is that they love blood sports, want to watch fights, not hockey. They want one form of barbarism in place of another.

Allowing players to fight at will with no consequences is vigilante justice. No respect for rules or civilization. What matters then is not the rules of the game or fair play, but might and will and individual preference.

When things aren't going you way, just send out the goons. In response, the other side sends out their goons. Each side hires more goons so they can send them out. More goons and more goons.

Do we need more goons? Absolutely not.

Get rid of the goons, get rid of fighting. If that means people won't watch because they want to see fights, then so be it.

Posted 2007/03/10 at 10h28ET in Hockey. [View single entry]