Sport and Technology » Byfuglien http://sportandtech.com My thoughts on sports and technology. Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:36:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 NHL Free Agency – Worst Signing of First Few Days http://sportandtech.com/2009/07/03/nhl-free-agency-worst-signing-of-first-few-days/ http://sportandtech.com/2009/07/03/nhl-free-agency-worst-signing-of-first-few-days/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:35:38 +0000 goalieref http://sportandtech.com/?p=24 A signing that many are applauding, Marian Hossa to the Chicago Blackhawks, may actually be one of the worst so far. To start with, let’s look at the length of the contract. It’s a 12 year deal and Hossa is already 30 years old. Some quick math tells me that he’d be 42 if he played to the end of his contract. Barring some significant advances in medicine, I just don’t see this happening. Looking at the numbers, confirms that the length of the contract would seem to be solely to give Hossa the money upfront without the cap hit that would come with a shorter contract. According to multiple sources, the contract pays him $7.9 million for the first 7 years, $4 million in the 8th year, $1 million in years 9 and 10, and $750K in the final two years. This gives him a cap number of just over $5.16 million per year. Compare this to the contract for Martin Havlat, who was unable to reach a contract because the Hawks did not want to offer more than one year, and Havlat’s 6 year, $30 million contract has a cap hit of $5 million. Havlat went 29-48-77-+29 and Hossa went 40-31-71-+27. So, the Hawks get 11 goals, lose 17 assists and a team leader. But, they do get to spend $2.9 million more for that. Let’s not forget their playoff performances this past season. Hossa was non-existent for most of the playoffs (though he did have 15 points in 23 games) while Havlat was consistently a spark for the young Hawks (15 points in 16 games). Let’s also not forget that Havlat is 2 years younger than Hossa.

The next thing to consider is that the Hawks have some big signings coming up in the next few years. Next year, Patrick Kane, Jonathon Toews, Duncan Keith, and a few others become Restricted Free Agents. They are now eligible to sign an extension and all three should be wrapped up for long term contracts. All three will probably looking for big money and based on their performances, should get it. The Hawks have $16 million in payroll coming off the books next season (including those three). They are about $9 million under the salary cap based on the 2009-10 cap numbers and still have players that need to sign including the young and very talented Kris Versteeg. In order to sign all three, they are going to need to find some cap room somewhere. There are some trade rumors circling that would send either Versteeg or Byfuglien away. This does not seem like a great move, but that would depend on who was coming back to the Hawks. A better move would be to find someone to take the contract of Brian Campbell. He is currently making over $7 million to play on the second defensive line. That is money poorly spent as he has definitely not lived up to all the hype surrounding his signing last season.

So, unless the third time is the charm and the Hawks can lead Hossa back to the Stanley Cup Finals and bring home the cup, in the short term this does not seem like a good move. In the middle term, this move seems to handicap the Hawks for the next several years and will make free agency next year very interesting. The Hawks will have to hope that they can convince their young star players to stay with them long term at a nice discount.

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