Don't forget there's no sales tax in Alberta and I believe taxes are lower in Alberta than the rest of Canada. Hendricks is American and has no problems in Edmonton. Patrick Maroon is Ameriocan. Mark Fayne is American and signed in Edmonton. Tyler Pitlick and Jordan Oesterle who signed recently are American. Doug Weigh spent a lot of years in Edmonton.
Just saying.
sales tax isn't the big issue. For states like in particular Texas and Florida (and others), where there is no state tax, the difference is huge. With the Notley government, Alberta has lost advantages it once had, and now is more comparable to other Canadian cities/ locales. The effective tax rate on an annual income of, say $4 million means taxes in Canada of $2 million (and a net take home of $2 million) compared to taxes in Texas and Florida of $1 million (and a net take home of $3 million). That's not chump change, and .... what's a little sales tax. And housing is twice the cost in Canada (or 4X the cost in Vancouver or Toronto) as compared to many American cities-- not Manhattan, of course, but lots of the other hockey cities.
hell, even if I'm Canadian born, raised and with all my family living here, and I'm making this kind of money for a short career in hockey, my agent is telling me that if I have a choice, then the US is the place to work and ply my trade.
Oh, and the players that you listed who are American and signing contracts to play in Edmonton, well, done of them are elite, most of them really don't have a lot a choice in the matter, and many are just pleased to be playing the game and getting a professional hockey salary. Pitlick, lucky to be signed-- he could be out of hockey or at best a career AHL player; Oesterle, a young kid getting an opportunity to pay on a bottom ranked team (what choices does he really have); Maroon, again Edmonton is his opportunity to pay after slipping pretty much out of consideration in Anaheim; Fayne, signed as a free agent to big money, and was waived down to the AHL into last year's season, sort of like a "Bickell" situation in Chicago. Hendricks, a fourth line player getting high end good third line money in Edmonton-- he's in the press box on many teams, and making a lot less money as well-- he's making less than a mill in Chicago, right, so taxes aren't everything if the team is paying you more than what your going rate should be.
So how do any of these players compare to a kid that's a top 5 draft pick and perhaps could become a top-line forward and making top-line forward money, well, they don't compare.
Doug Weight-- that was literally last century. And, Edmonton was just a stop over for him in his career. Didn't begin here, and didn't end here either. Sort of makes my point, doesn't it???
The teams that succeed are those that identify there core elite players, get them at entry level contracts, and sign them long term as RFA's and UFA's. And the bottom filler players are interchangeable, tradeable, and acquirable. If you are drafting at #4 it's to get a core player, not a bottom filler.
