Free agency: Let’s be realistic
By Jason Gregor
9 years ago
The lunacy known as free agency begins tomorrow. Million dollar contracts get handed out more freely and recklessly than pipes at a crack house.
Management and fans get addicted to the belief that the woes of their team will be solved via free agency, and many are willing to do it at any cost.
This year will be no different.
The 2014/2015 salary cap will be $69 million, and in 2012 teams knew the cap would be $70 million. Here is a quick look back at some of the insanity that was handed out back then.
Jason Garrison got $27.6 million over six years. Less than two years later he was given away for a 2nd round pick.
Aaron Rome, Jordin Tootoo and Greg Zanon got three, three and two years contracts, but all of them were bought out before the deals expired. Ray Whitney was 40 years old, but he got a two-year deal worth $9 million. He scored nine goals in the final year of that deal.
Chris Kelly got four years at $3 million and a partial NMC. A third liner gets a NMC. Insanity.
OIlers fans don’t need to re-live the horror of free agency in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but Eric Belanger, Ben Eager, Darcy Hordichuk, Nikolai Khabibulin and others give you a sense of how things can go wrong.
IT WILL NEVER CHANGE
I don’t expect this week to be any different. Teams have cap space and they want to use it. The NHL is very competitive, and GMs and owners get caught up in the competition of overspending and they can’t help themselves.
Matt Niskanen will likely get close to $5.5 million/year on a six or seven year contract. He is a good player, but he is not a franchise D-man. Anton Stralman possession numbers have some people drooling, but when a team signs him for $4.5+ they will increase his icetime and expect the same results. Usually that is a recipe for disappointment.
I constantly hear the phrase from media and fans, “the cap is going up,” as if it is some sort of built in excuse for the idiocy that will arrive tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. MST.
FYI, this year’s cap is lower than it was two years ago, so why are players suddenly worth more today? Hell, some people are already throwing out next year’s cap, projected to be $75 million due to the new TV contract, in advance of the overspending. “Don’t worry, we can over pay this player for seven years, because the cap is going up in 2015.” That sounds completely reasonable.
I’d rather overpay on a short term deal than get locked into a five, six or seven year deal, but rarely do we see shorter terms for the supposed impact UFAs.
WHAT ABOUT THE OILERS
We all know they need and want to sign a centre. Ideally they will sign two quality centres, but I don’t think that is realistic, or if they think it is even necessary. I get the sense Leon Draisaitl is penciled in to be one of the top-three centres. (More on that another day, but I don’t think it is a good plan to guarantee him a spot. At the very least have four other proven NHL centres in camp, and make him compete for a job.)
If Craig MacTavish doesn’t land Paul Stastny some will deem free agency a failure.
News flash: The Oilers have missed the playoffs for eight seasons. They aren’t the first choice for a 28 year-old UFA. Players want to win, and even if the Oilers are willing to pay $500,000 more per season, that likely isn’t enough to attract a player like Stastny.
The realistic centre options are more likely players like David Legwand, Mikhail Grabovski, Brian Boyle, Marcel Goc, Derek Roy, Vern Fiddler or Olli Jokinen.
They all have NHL experience, but none of them are superstars and they all have some warts in their game. The Oilers need improvements in many areas, so don’t should expect one centre to make the Oilers an instant contender.
I’d consider a one-year deal on Peter Mueller, but nothing more. I’d need to see if he matured playing in Europe.
The Oilers could also use another top-nine winger and at least one, possibly two veteran NHL defenceman.
Names like Nikolai Kulemin, Kyle Quincey, Mark Fayne or Andrej Meszaros have been tossed around. They are proven NHL players, but not franchise players. Signing them would help, but the Nation needs to maintain realistic expectations on their production, regardless of what type of contract they get.
If you are expecting the Oilers to land the best free agents, you will be grossly disappointed. I truly hope they do, and if they land a big fish I will be pleasantly surprised, but I won’t be shocked when they don’t.
If the Oilers can land two quality, serviceable forwards and two steady NHL defenders, then MacTavish will have done an outstanding job. Signing one of each seems more realistic.
PARTING SHOTS…
I’ve read lately how some are down playing the Perron deal because it was for the #10 and the #33 pick, and somehow that means it was a bad trade.
Are you freaking serious. If you believe that you must be from the crowd who constantly overrates the value of a draft pick.
If a player was drafted at #10 five years ago, but hasn’t performed well, is he still valued as a 10th overall pick today? Umm, no. And now Ivan Barbashev is suddenly the guy the Oilers desperately need in their organization. Please.
Under that same delusional thinking the Oilers made a great trade when they dealt Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders for three first round picks.
Or I guess the Oilers won the Chris Pronger trade because they got four 1st rounder for him. #facepalm
Perron has played 418 games and scored 112-143-255. They gave up Paajarvi, 218 GP and 32-38-70 and a draft pick who might be in the NHL in three years.
The Oilers have made many bad trades, but trying to argue that Perron deal was bad because they gave up a 10th and 33rd pick is asinine.
QUICK HITS…
- Brian Sutherby has always maintained Dave Tippett was the best coach he ever had. He knows how to connect to players and he gets them to play how he wants them to. Tippett will be Sam Gagner’s 6th head coach in eighth season, but he might be the best thing for Gagner. He needs to improve his defensive play, and Tippett has a good track record of getting the most out of his players in both ends of the ice. Gagner has NHL talent, and sometimes players need a trade to realize they how hard they must work for that talent to appear. I’m curious to see how Gagner does in Phoenix. I believe he will do well.
- The Coyotes are only paying Gagner $3.2 million (Tampa pays the other $1.6 mill), so the Coyotes expectations of him, and his production, will be more in line with his salary.
- The Lightning are making room to add a free agent. They must have had good chat with some UFAs during the interview period, but of course they didn’t discuss real term or dollars, because that is not allowed. I chuckle when someone mentions teams, players and agents can’t discuss formal offers, and actually believes that they don’t.
- Has any GM done a worse job of handling a goalie situation than Mike Gillis? A year ago Gillis had Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo. Today, he is no longer with the Canucks and Jim Benning needs to sign Ryan Miller or Jonas Hiller to give his team a chance at getting back to the playoffs. Gillis’ handling of his goalie rivaled Steve Tambellini’s free agent signings.
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I will never understand rating a draft the day after is happens. How can anyone say with certainty if a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th round pick will pan out. I can understand if you break down first round picks, especially the top-10, but after that there is a lot of luck involved. Some players continue to develop, while others have reached their peak. Some get injured. Some lose their confidence when they go to the next level and don’t have instant success, while others simply don’t get a good opportunity within an organization. All I know is that getting drafted is a huge accomplishment. Only 210 players in the entire world heard their name called on Saturday, and I hope they are all proud of that. The majority of them won’t play in the NHL, because it is extremely hard to make it the Show, but that shouldn’t stop them from celebrating a very important first step in their dream to play in the NHL. Congrats to all the players drafted. You and your family should cherish the moment, and hopefully it inspires you to work even harder to take the next step.
- Do you want to Volunteer? I’m been helping out the Great White North Triathlon for the past four years. It is a great event. The organizers have told me they are short 5-7 volunteers/course marshals to help out on race day. The race is this coming Sunday. It is in Stony Plain. If you are interested in helping out, it is a great time, send me an email to gregor@tsn1260.ca. Thanks.
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