The growing salary cap floor has completely altered the trade market in the National Hockey League.
ST. PAUL -- When even the sage Lou Lamoriello, the dean of NHL general managers, did not see change afoot, then you know some people around the National Hockey League are surprised at what's happening with the hockey economy these days.
"No," Lamoriello confirmed on Day 2 of the NHL Entry Draft. "None of us saw it coming."
"It" is the sudden ability to move contracts we once considered to be unmovable. The rich, long-term deals complete with no-trade and no-movement clauses.
Rick Dipietro. Scott Gomez. Jason Spezza and perhaps even Sheldon Souray, though Edmonton GM Steve Tambellini was pitching this weekend, and could find no catchers.
The kind of deal that was supposed to marry a team and a player, 'til death do they part. "Unmovable," we said, as recently as a few days ago.
Then Philadelphia GM Paul Holmgren orchestrated Thursday's trades that saw 23 years and over $100 million in salary leave Philadelphia, which sent tremors through the hockey landscape.
The very next day Brian Campbell and his albatross of a deal was traded from Chicago to Florida. At that moment, everyone realized that an evolution had occurred.
"The reason we're seeing this today is the cap floor," the New Jersey GM Lamoriello said. "Teams have to get to that, and teams near the cap have to get back down. It's a leveling off process."
The "floor" is the minimum each team must spend on player salaries under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. As the cap ceiling was announced at $64.3 million (all figures in US dollars), the floor was also set at $48.3 million.
The Florida Panthers, even after taking on Campbell's annual cap hit of $7.1 million--for the next five seasons -- are still well below the floor.
So, Canucks fans. Maybe it IS possible that goaltender Roberto Luongo, whose wife has family roots in South Florida, can be moved, despite the remaining 11 years with a cap hit of north of $5.33 million.
Oilers fans, perhaps Shawn Horcoff's ridiculous deal -- $5.5 million cap hit for four more seasons -- is portable after all. And how about Vincent Lecavalier, with nine years left at a hit of $7.727 million?
It used to be a no-movement clause locked a team and player together for good. But at this draft, Flames GM Jay Feaster moved a reluctant Robyn Regehr to Buffalo, ridding himself of an awful contract in the persona of Ales Kotalik as well.
We all thought Feaster and the Flames were in cap hell for some time. But now?
"I just respect him so much," Feaster said of Regehr, "Because he came in at the exit meeting at the end of the year and said, 'If you feel that I'm part of your solution here, or that moving me out helps the organization, then I'm willing to work with you.'"
Today's player negotiates a no-trade into his deal, but as Lamoriello points out, "He may also be saying, 'If I get traded, I'm going to decide where I go.'"
"The player has the ability to say no," Lamoriello points out. "I don't know whether it's right, wrong or indifferent. But if the player feels the team doesn't want him anymore, they have to look at it in a different way."
Vancouver is that team that follows the old Ray Bourque salary cap rule, from his days in Boston. The Canucks' best players -- the Sedin twins -- took a hometown discount at a cap hit of $6.1 million. Ryan Kesler came next at $5 million, and so on through the roster.
"We feel we have a covenant with these players. If they're willing to take less money to play in our organization, we're going to keep them," Canucks V.P. Laurence Gilman began. "We've articulated to our players … that we're going to be a salary cap team. And we're going to give the players as much as we can give them.
"But there is a point in the continuum, and it's different for each player, (anything over) what we pay them inhibits us surrounding them with players that will make us a championship calibre team.
"You have to be really sure about the player … what they're about, before you make these deals."
Feaster ran out of money in Tampa Bay when he was the Lightning's general manager, and had some hard decisions to make.
"It's the toughest thing that you do," he said. "I went through it with Brad Richards … a guy that won a Stanley Cup for us. When you have a warrior like Robyn is, a guy who has been there as long as he's been there and has done as much for the franchise as he has, that's a very, very difficult phone call to make."
Carter signed for 12 years to be in Philadelphia, an Eastern Conference powerhouse. But before his no-trade kicked in, he was moved to Columbus, a Western Conference doormat.
"Tough luck," assessed Penguins executive Bill Guerin. "Other teams know what they're getting 'cause they're signed. L.A. knows Richards has 11 years left. They're happy to pay him."
Regehr could have said no to Feaster, but in the end his options were: to go to Buffalo or stay in Calgary, where he was clearly not seen as part of the future.
In Vancouver, there are many who would rather continue with Cory Schneider in the net, and somehow avoid another decade of Luongo's playoff work. And in Hartford, Rangers defenceman Wade Redden toils in the minors, playing out the final three seasons of his $6.5 million yearly deal that, we once believed, couldn't be moved.
Lamoriello assessed: "I think we're going to see less and less long-term deals."
Good call, Lou.
