I’m not a math whiz by any means but these compliance buyouts in the new National Hockey League, after the last labour agreement, are starting to make my head spin.
Basically it works like this. Former stars like Vincent Lecavalier and Keith Ballard get paid a lot of money to no longer play for one team and then they go and sign for more money with another team to play against the team that is still paying them.
Got it?
Well, for example the Vancouver Canucks said goodbye to Ballard by buying out the last two years of his contract with the team, a day after he cleared waivers (meaning no other NHL team wanted him, at least at the price the Canucks were paying him).
So then the Minnesota Wild, in the same division as the Canucks by the way, sign him at a reduced rate, we’re still talking millions here folks, to play for their team, and, of course, against those same Canucks who just agreed to hand over all that money.
I know it’s all about salary caps and giving teams more room to sign other players that they still like or hope to lure to their team but it’s unsettling to us common folk who don’t have employers scrambling to give us money, especially when we don’t live up to expectations.
Heavy sigh…..
……and speaking of management screwing up with long-term contracts for big money (which they continue to do by the way), the solution to the Canucks goaltender controversy took a lot of people by surprise.
Disbelief greeted the news last Sunday that Cory Schneider had been dispatched to New Jersey for a first-round pick.
Instant comments I got from people playing in Funtastic that I told ranged from “Do they know they traded the wrong goalie?” to “That’s all they got for him?’ to “Yeah, right, that’s not funny.”
But it was true. And, although at one level it’s understandable – they got a first-round forward with tons of potential and no one, apparently, was willing to take on Roberto Luongo’s contract – but they also traded a guy who they said was their No. 1 goalie today and into the future for some guy named Bo? What could they have got for Schneider if they traded him at the deadline last season?
With some distance from the transaction, as in a week, I’m more at peace with it, like I have a choice, plus it’s not my neck on the line. Lou can still be a No. 1 goalie and the jury was still out on Schneider in the playoffs. Sooooo it may work out, or it could backfire exponentially, only time will tell…..
……and speaking of odd transactions, the Canucks basically ended up swapping coach Alain Vigneault for the New York Rangers coach John Tortorella.
Well, that’s how it ended up but first both teams fired their respective coaches, i.e paid them out, and then went looking for a new coach, i.e. signed them to new, long-term contracts, and it just happened to be the other team’s coach. Got it?
Gee, sounds similar to the compliance buyout thing.
Except coaches don’t get put on waivers and they don’t get traded for each other, normally.
It’s too bad though cause each team could have saved a lot of money and hassle.
It also sounds like the league and its teams are throwing a lot of money around, and who knows which teams will actually benefit from all of this, and that’s without even looking at the ramifications of the free-agent frenzy which began Friday.
Oh well, it all makes for fodder for the July version of the hot-stove league. Like it’s not hot enough already around here. OK, that’s it. No more hockey columns until at least August.
—Glenn Mitchell, Canucks fan, is the managing editor for The Morning Star
