Just a little something to chew on for the weekend...
Think about all the teams that have been hell-bent on keeping their collective salaries at the lower spectrum of the cap. The floor figure for last year was 21.5 million. Think about Buffalo, who likes to have a ceiling below the actual 44-million dollar cap, and the frustrations they've been dealing with involving RFAs. Think about Boston -- with a collective salary of approximately 32 million last year, and notoriously stingy. Suddenly they're shelling out for Zdeno Chara.
How are these smaller-market teams, and teams that have difficulty drawing going to be able to justify spending this money? The cap demands it now -- you've got to keep up or you'll be left by the wayside, and more and more teams are pushing the limit. Toronto and Detroit have always spent big -- they could afford to, and their ticket prices reflected that fact.
Other teams who had smaller wallets previously attempted to tread water. The CBA's salary cap gives them a chance to hook some of the bigger fishes of free agency, but some still have to get used to the idea of spending $44 million on a collective salary.
It's great if the fans show up, and can offset some of the costs. But what if they don't? The fact remains that even if they do, a number of these markets will likely be raising ticket prices again.
Posts
Its far better with the Cap than without it, you just have to adopt!!! The key is probably a bit of patience and willingness to lose those that get too greedy.
As for teams going under the cap, well obviously they get what they pay for but hey, if they bide there time they may get some good players.
Think about it, at max each team has so many players they can over pay. That means there should be some guys who either won't be in the NHL or who have to take less.
The question, really is how many players are there at the "same" ability as your player and how much does he improve the team when he's in the line up.
Anyway, small market fans like us should NOT complain about the cap. In the end, small market teams are used to having budgets and now at least there are limits to how much free agents can go for. Restricted free agents may well become a thing of the past but how cares. If it happens, it happens.
Don't feel too sorry for the Sabres they may actually be the team that knows what they are doing.
Ricky the Moose
Anonymous
12:48 p.m.
Well said, reality check. The is especially true in the salary cap world although, sometimes player preferences may come into play; e.g., Pronger and Peca leaving Edmonton because of wife and travel schedule respectively.
Ricky
Anonymous
8:17 p.m.