Well, it’s finally time for the NHL Playoffs to get underway. It was a very exciting regular season, going down to the wire to determine who was in/out and seeding. Here are my predictions for the first round of the playoffs. Feel free to disagree if you’d like. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Hockey’
The NHL Playoffs Are Here
Monday, April 12th, 2010NHL Free Agency – Worst Signing of First Few Days
Friday, July 3rd, 2009A 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.
