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Irresponsible Lowe
by Paul on 07/30/07 at 07:11 AM ET
Comments (6)
from Eric Franicis of the Calgary Sun,
By signing Dustin Penner to a five-year, US$21.25 million offer sheet that gives the towering rookie ten times more money a year than he made in Anaheim, Lowe has suddenly become the sort of reckless GM that prompted a year-long lockout.
After years of lamenting the foolhardiness of people like Glen Sather, Mike Milbury and Bob Clarke, whose constant overspending drove the market up and threatened the very existence of small market teams like the Oilers, Lowe is now the irresponsible one.
Filed in: Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
Could we please beat all the reporters with a hockey stick until they stop talking about large contracts “driving up salaries” since there is now a slaary cap, and the proportion of revenues allocated to the players is a specified percentage?
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/30/07 at 10:00 AM ET
Another thing:
Chris Drury will earn $7.1 million this season. Sure he scored 37 goals last season, but his five-year average is a modest 25.8 goals. If you look at the entire body of work, Drury is unlikely to match last year’s total again. Dustin Penner scored 29 goals last season as an emerging young player. Now, I do not have a crystal ball, but I will say this: It is entirely conceivable that Penner could—could—score more goals than Drury this season. Would Penner’s contract look so bad then?
Posted by Eric from Scottsdale, Ariz. on 07/30/07 at 10:28 AM ET
The salary cap is now tied to leauge revenues. Thus it WILL NOT increase to compensate for higher players salaries! What a player is worth is dictated by the market. If a few teams with money feel like overspending then that is indeed what that player is worth to that team. If lowe was the only one in the NHL willing or capable to pay that much for penner, it would not actually ‘drive up players salaries’ as no one else could afford him under the salary cap. For example, if edmonton spent 20million in cap space on penner would then all players of that calibre now deserve similar contracts? Of course not!
what I find irresponsible is the almost unbelievalbe lack of hockey knowledge held by certain hockey journalist. It seems this argument always comes from cities that have either lost players due to poor manegement techniques, are destined to lose them, or are stuck with an ownership groups who refuse to spend to the cap. Support your team better and maybe they will.
Posted by Richard from Edmonton on 07/30/07 at 11:33 AM ET
55% of revenues is still 55% no matter how that is spread out among the players. The GMs are now playing with house money, all it affects is the salary of other players. It will drive up the cost of individual salaries, but unless the NHL can generate higher revenues then the only thing that changes is the escrow deduction. How is it that the average fan can figure this out, but the GMs insist this is inflationary?
Posted by hockey1919 from montreal on 07/30/07 at 03:23 PM ET
Salaries don’t even drive ticket prices. We have seen that ticket prices will be the maximum the market can support and not a penny less. That’s why the Rangers, for example, have halved their payroll from pre-lockout and increased ticket prices every year since then.
Posted by hockey1919 from montreal on 07/30/07 at 04:04 PM ET
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Irresponsible journalism. How is Kevin Lowe the only reckless one when the Flyers just shelled out an obscene amount for Daniel Briere and the Rangers piled a lavish amount of money on Chris Drury? Please spare me the nonsense about this type of behavior causing the lockout. If someone values Dustin Penner at $21.5 million and has the resources to pay him, the Ducks should either match the offer or shut their mouths. It’s called an open market.
Posted by Eric from Scottsdale, Ariz. on 07/30/07 at 09:40 AM ET