TSN.CA reports that the Oiler$ have signed Anaheim's Dustin Penner to a 5 year $21.5m offer sheet. The guy has played 1 full season in the NHL in which he scored 29 goals and 45 points while going -2. He scored all of 3 goals in Anaheim's march to the Cup. Naturally, Krazy Kevin gives this kid over $4m per season for 5 years. This makes Philly's signing of Scott Hartnell look good. Didn't Vancouver sign Taylor Pyatt for under $2m per season.
The poster boys for small market franchises and the reason we fans missed a season of hockey, sure don't seem to mind escalating salaries at unprecedented levels, now do they?
My problem with the Oiler$ approach is that it makes it impossible to dress a deep team. Sam Weinman summed it up perfectly in a post from earlier this month:
"the cap forces teams to balance themselves with a healthy mixture of high-priced stars and role players. It turns the young players the Rangers used to ignore into players they desperately need to round out their rosters. In other words, it means the Rangers have to be creative as opposed to just throwing money at every problem that surfaces."
The issue here is the "young players" Weinman refers to. They're more important today than ever because they're supposed to be cheap. A team has to be willing to spend $7m plus to sign top players that reach UFA age. If those same teams have to spend $4m plus to resign players with 1 full NHL season under their belts and all of about 35 career goals, how will that team ever be able to dress a balanced roster?
Some say that the Oiler$ method is the wave of the future(or should I say present?). They argue that the new CBA envisioned and encourages precisely these types of signings. I am not sure I agree with that. First, the compensation the signing team must pay if their offer is successful should be considered prohibitive (if it's not, don't be surprised to see changes made in the next CBA). As Sam Weinman correctly pointed out, good drafting is important, no matter how low the UFA age drops. Therefore, no team should want to give up draft picks unless the player they are signing is truly worth stunting the franchises development process (as good as Vanek may become, is he really worth setting back your teams development by nearly half a decade?).
Second, the salary cap, by its very definition, was imposed to restore fiscal responsibility. The Oiler$ antics are not examples of fiscal responsibility. At this stage in his career, Vanek is not worth over $7m per year. After one full season in the league, Penner is not worth over $4m per year. Period.
Third, a RFA offer sheet can be used as a comparable in salary arbitration proceedings. What that means is that the Oiler$ have now set the following dangerous precedent for Group II RFA's: if you've played one full season in the NHL and have scored 29 goals and 16 assists with a -2 rating, your worth over $4m per season (Dustin Penner). If, in your second season you follow that up with a point per game performance, you're worth over $7m per season. Sorry folks, but that's just not going to work under the new cap structure.
Under the new CBA, the top players will still get their money once they hit unrestricted free agency. Everyone knew and expected that. The bottom players will have to play for less. That was expected too. But what about the middle class? A group made up largely of young players who will one day cash in but as of yet have less negotiating leverage? They were supposed to stay relatively cheap. The Oiler$ have attacked that balance. Here we go again!
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