Lol Edmonton and Toronto's problems are self-inflicted. Edmonton is paying Nurse almost $10M a year. Toronto gave a stupid contract to Tavares and then gave out stupid contracts to their young RFAs, instead of playing hardball with them. That threw their whole salary structure out of whack. Look at Winnipeg, they have better management and they are accordingly much higher in the standings. Ottawa has had poor management for awhile. They are just now turning the corner after years of being in the basement. Montreal had bad management for a long time too and that's why they had to rebuild. Vancouver had bad management for a long time, they recently brought in Rutherford and Allvin and now recently have been a top team with a good future. Calgary has long been mired in bad management/ownership. New York has a lot of flaws and they are now coming to light and they are one of the worst teams this season. Detroit went for it for over 20 years and are now paying the repurcussions for it. It was a long uphill battle for them starting from scratch, and Yzerman hasnt had much lottery luck either. It's not rocket science. New Jersey did a good rebuild and had some lottery luck and now they are a top team with a very bright future.
The rest of the league is supposed to help fix Toronto and Edmonton's problems just because they suck at managing their teams and screwed themselves? Watch Edmonton give Bouchard 9-10 M.
You’re absolutely right about rebuilding.
So:
What if I told you that Darnell Nurse would have been about 8.4-8.8AAV if he had signed in Florida? His take home pay would actually go up a little bit too.
What would Edmonton do with the space? Would they be in as much cap hell? (Probably, lol)
What if every single non-elc player is like this? (For the most part they are)
When Bouchard comes due his agent will compare him to…it doesn’t really matter who: every offensive rhd taking the top role is paid.
Bouchard will get a comparable contract. They’ll put Dougie Hamiltons last deal along with a half dozen others on the table and show why they think Bouchard deserves more.
Edmonton can either trade him/let him walk or sign him to that precedent driven contract. It would be rare for Bouchard to take a discounted deal - but it is legal for him to do so. I think they should all take every penny they can. The job is hard on the body.
They don’t get an option to pay him less, like what Florida pays Gustav Forsling.
This is bad for parity and is the reason a tax free state has won 4 out of the last 5 cups, was the runner up the time they didn’t win.
The system that restricts player pay is also now picking winners and losers. Yzerman isn’t so amazing when he has to sign players for normal amounts.
A little fun context:
The 4 lowest rated World Series ever have been in the past 5 years.
The two lowest rated Super Bowls since 1970 have been in the last 4 years.
Common theme? Broadcast television is fading fast and the antiquated Nielsen Ratings System does not accurately reflect actual eyeballs on the games anymore.
Either the NHL is suffering championship interest loss miraculously coincident with both the NFL and MLB … or there’s other factors that are fudging the numbers in parallel for all three.
Huge hole in my thesis ty.
