Canucks and NHL Thoughts in the Heat of the Summer
Shea Weber
Hockey it seems is a twelve month a year article, it just never stops. It’s been about three months since I last blogged, because I needed a break from the hockey mad city and it’s team. Not that I haven’t been following what has been going on, because you’ll always finds me tweeting away.
The one primo UFA defenseman that was available, Nashville Predators Ryan Suter, backed his money truck up and loaded it with the $98 million 13 year contract from Minnesota. Yesterday, Shea Weber was presented with an offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers for $100 million running 14 years. No wonder there will be a certain NHL stoppage with the stupidity of the owners throwing around contracts like that.
I learned earlier today that the Vancouver Canucks had seriously discussed an offer sheet to Weber, but couldn’t make the numbers work that they figured wouldn’t be matched by Nashville. If Nashville does indeed lose Weber, than this would be an ideal time for ‘Nucks GM Mike Gillis to pick up the phone and talk to the ‘Preds about a D-man that the Canucks would like to deal, and that would be Keith Ballard. That and the fact that Nashville will be looking to reach the minimum salary cap level.
Getting back to the CBA that will expire on September 15, 2012, it looks like a certain shut down again with what the NHL owners have offered the NHLPA. The way the legal minds work, it will take months for them to even figure out just what exactly is meant by “Hockey Related Revenues”.
Doesn’t this whole CBA picture look familiar to the previous one? The players having to rescue the owners from their outrageous contracts that break the economic backs of the majority of the NHL teams. Didn’t the previous CBA end with players like Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic and others with $10-12 million dollar contracts for multi-years? They rolled back the cap then to what, $39 million, and this year it has increased to just over $70 million. 
Just how much will the NHLPA have to give up this time in order for the owners to run these contracts up again? Furthermore, if both sides dig in and the NHL shuts the season down, will the NHLPA end up in the same spot they did previously? Looking at the NFL and NBA deals, it always seems the owners win out in the end, so I say, why waste the whole season to settle on an amount that will be fairly close to what is offered now?
I expect the revenue percentage share to be around the 50% mark and the other issues are just bargaining chips anyways. The one issue that both sides need to solidify is the length of these contracts, and I totally agree that five years should be the maximum. One other point that I don’t agree with is a player 37 years or older signing a long term deal, and then retiring before the contract ends, and it still counting towards the cap. But enough about that for now.
If you have followed my blogs for the past four plus years, you will know that I’ve ranted periodically about the Canucks lack of grit throughout their lineup and coincidentally that last two Stanley Cup winners (Boston & LA) just happened to have had the necessary mixture. Albeit, it is still three months till the season starts, but the Canucks have made no moves to fix that problem. They still don’t have a proven power forward or a Shea Weber type of D-man, and with the current lineup, will never win a Stanley Cup or even get to the finals again.
Anyways, summer, sun and warmth only arrived in Vancouver on July 4th, so I’m out to enjoy it on the golf course. Will write more about all this hockey stuff later.
Ice Bits – My question about this whole CBA discussions is, if they roll back the cap significantly, just how will all these teams with these new long term huge contracts, fit underneath without waiving half the team?
Photo Credits – AP, Getty Images, Google Images and Yahoo Sports!
Video Credits – YouTube
Stats Credits – http://www.hockeydb.com, http://www.nhl.com/ice/statshome.htm, http://capgeek.com, http://canucks.nhl.com.
Quote Credits – The Vancouver Sun and Province
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