I Want to Keep My Favorite Players
Posted 11:06 AM ET | Comments 4
For the past year I have been floating this idea around my group of friends regarding an addition or modification to the structure of the salary cap.
I believe I have an idea that will be both beneficial towards the players and their respective teams, while not altering the “competitive balance” amongst NHL teams. This will also award teams for developing and retaining players as well as serving as a tool for those GM’s who properly know how to manage contracts and the cap. Here goes…
Players who have been with the franchise for 12 years will have 0% of their salary go against the cap. While players who have been with the franchise for 8 years will have only 50% of their salary go against the cap.
Disclaimer on %’s and Number of Years… these will obviously be a point of contention and are up for debate. And of course the “Number of Years” would have to be active years, i.e. years in which the respective player has played 40+ games (including games missed do to being on the injured reserve list).
My Reasoning:
Teams should not have to turn the page on a player in the twilight years of their career because the player is not worth the amount of money they could be making on the free market.
Players should not have to take a “hometown discount” to stay with the teams they have been for 10+ years.
Fans should not have to debate loyalty to the players they have cheered for over a decade versus this players value versus the cap.
I believe I have an idea that will be both beneficial towards the players and their respective teams, while not altering the “competitive balance” amongst NHL teams. This will also award teams for developing and retaining players as well as serving as a tool for those GM’s who properly know how to manage contracts and the cap. Here goes…
Players who have been with the franchise for 12 years will have 0% of their salary go against the cap. While players who have been with the franchise for 8 years will have only 50% of their salary go against the cap.
Disclaimer on %’s and Number of Years… these will obviously be a point of contention and are up for debate. And of course the “Number of Years” would have to be active years, i.e. years in which the respective player has played 40+ games (including games missed do to being on the injured reserve list).
My Reasoning:
Teams should not have to turn the page on a player in the twilight years of their career because the player is not worth the amount of money they could be making on the free market.
Players should not have to take a “hometown discount” to stay with the teams they have been for 10+ years.
Fans should not have to debate loyalty to the players they have cheered for over a decade versus this players value versus the cap.
Yeah, let's give Ottawa more help :)
I think the cap does need to be modified so a team could keep their franchise guy and build around him. I think their should be a "franchise tag." Take a guy like Crosby in Pittsburgh and make him the "franchise guy," meaning that his contract doesn't count towards the cap. It would only be one player per team, but I think that would be enough help to both keep franchise players, and keep things interesting with a salary cap.
that doesnt really solve anything, because the teams struggling to keep their players dont spend to the cap anyway. its not that cap thats the problem, its the fact they dont have the money. it would just allow the rich to get richer. the reason buff could only offer the money they did to briere was because they couldnt afford more, not because of the cap. so even if it didnt count as a cap hit, they still couldnt pay him 52 mil over 8 years like philly.
I agree that it gives teams that can afford to pay more (TOR, PHI, NYR) a bit of an advantage, but they still cannot go out and buy a team as they could before as there is still a need to retain and develop which is prevelant under the cap system in order to take advantage of this provision. Saying that I do believe that the teams that can afford that advantage can do so (in most cases) because of fan support and money, and therefore those fans deserve for their team to have that slight advantage.