| 26 July 2011
Let me start out this piece by stating that we at the site love getting emails from our readers. Whether it’s encouragement, PhotoShopped images, a crack at MLSE’s expense or ideas for blogs, the emails from readers help turn a mundane offseason into one that can be very droll.
Below are two emails that the website has received in the last 24 hours…
From "Frank in TO"...
Curious to get your thoughts on a subject. Not sure if it’s worth a post or not, but it’s an interesting discussion. Not sure if you happened to catch the Reporters yesterday morning on TSN. It’s probably available on the website if you’re interested. Anyway, they were all saying that it makes no sense that nobody gave Stamkos an offer sheet. They were also all in agreement that he is now underpaid at $7.5
Their analysis was pretty weak. None of them even mentioned that fact that a team would have to give up 4 first rounders in order for this to happen. This is when I started to get pissed off. Anyway, it also made me think that if any team in the league was going to do it, the Sens were probably in the most logical situation to do so. They have a ton of cap room, and they already have high-end prospects at all three positions, so they can (in theory) afford to lose the picks more than most teams can. For the record, I don’t really think they should have done it, and I’m sure Tampa would have matched pretty much any offer sheet anyway, but it’s an interesting thing to think about.
It also really pissed me off when they were saying he’s underpaid now. I think all four of them were completely missing the point of what Restricted Free Agency is, and why it exists. I also think they were ignoring the fact that he’s a fairly one-dimensional player, and has benefited greatly from playing next to St Louis. Only 6 guys in the league have a higher cap hit than he does, and 3 of those were UFA contracts (so shouldn’t be compared). The other three are Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin. Anyway, I think the whole discussion on TSN was quite low quality. I was curious to get somebody else’s thoughts.
You mean you want me to use this opportunity to drop trou and crap on some members of the Toronto media?
No problem.
If you check out Sun Media’s online sports section, you’ll notice that offer sheet discussion has been en vogue. There was today’s piece by Terry Koshan on the infrequency of offers to RFAs and then there was Steve Simmons’ piece entitled ‘GMs are not doing their jobs’ that lamented the lack of offers to two of the game’s biggest young stars in Drew Doughty and Steven Stamkos.
While I often find that Simmons is a giant windbag, he raises an interesting point about GMs not doing their due diligence to at the very least, kick the tires on these aforementioned young talents.
What would it have taken for the Maple Leafs to make an offer of consequence on Steven Stamkos?
One year and $12 million? Ten years and $100 million?
The bottom line is: No one, including the Leafs, will ever know. Because no team in hockey made an offer on the restricted free-agent sniper, other than the Tampa team he re-signed with.
Some will call it collusion. Some will say the restricted free-agent business is bad for hockey. But this much is certain: Rarely are players with the talent and age of Stamkos and Drew Doughty available, and it’s not the job of hockey general managers to act as the conscience of the game. It’s their job to make their teams better.
There were no offers made on Stamkos: Worse, there haven’t been exploratory phone calls on Doughty, who may be the more complete of the kids.
Stamkos, we’re told, would have seriously considered signing a one-year, $12-million deal. But the problem with an offer like that is that Tampa would have matched it. The longer-term, larger-money deal, might have been too rich for the Lightning to match. That’s probably where the Leafs had to go if they wanted to play that game.
Unfortunately, what Simmons ignores is the fact that it might be in a team like Toronto’s best interest to offer Stamkos a ridiculous amount of coin to get him to sign a contract but it’s not in Stamkos’ best interests at all.
Working under the assumption that Stamkos doesn’t care so much about money as he does about winning, if you’re in his position and legitimately believe that the Lightning will match any offer, why would you sign any offer sheet when it could negatively affect the organization’s payroll structure and competitive edge? Imagine having to walk into the dressing room in training camp to face the guys when the cost of business necessitated trading a few pieces away to make the team’s cap situation work.
And conversely, unless a Stanley Cup contender is the team willing to throw an offer sheet at you, what incentive is there to go elsewhere when the team acquiring you has to not only compensate the Lightning with 4-first round picks, they also had to offer an exorbitant salary rate to ensure that the Lightning don’t match the offer?
The answer is simple: Money notwithstanding, there’s little incentive for a player to sign an offer sheet.
As for your assertion that Ottawa’s theoretically in a logical position to do it, I disagree. Sure, they do have high-end prospects and depth in the farm system to possibly overcome the loss of four first round picks and yes, they currently have the cap room to bring in a ridiculous salary. However, that cap space is finite and any exorbitant salary will eventually hamstring the budget when many of Ottawa’s heralded prospects look for raises from their respective ELCs.
Not to mention the fact that the next two respective draft classes are likely to be headlined by offensive prospects such as Nail Yakupov in 2012 or Nathan MacKinnon, a player dubbed as the next Sidney Crosby, in 2013. Obviously I’m getting a little ahead of myself talking about players who haven’t proven anything at the NHL level but as a rebuilding organization that could feasibly have two more non-playoff seasons before making the foray back into the NHL playoffs, it seems counter-intuitive to give up 4 draft picks and any shot at drafting some highly regarded players. (Note: Yes, I’m aware that in two years, it’s unlikely that Ottawa is a lottery team considering the wealth of young talent in the system. However, you cannot predict what can happen and forfeiting the team’s 2013 draft selection just ensures that there’s a 0.0% chance of drafting MacKinnon. Or maybe you’re of the sort who’d believe it’d be more beneficial to have a guy like Stamkos on Ottawa’s team instead of the 4 draft picks. Congrats. I’m the patient sort of fan who’d rather see the organization grow organically.)
Shawn D writes...
The Sens have 6 defencement on 1-way contracts and want to give ice time to Rundblad and Cowen. Without regard to the obvious choice of Kuba, which 2 defencemen would you like to see sit the most this season?
If the Senators really want to give significant ice-time to Rundblad and Cowen, they might be best served following the path that they used for Robin Lehner and allow one of them to start the season in the AHL where they can play without fear of recourse for making mistakes at the NHL level.
At least that would afford them the opportunity to give last year’s underachieving veterans – Phillips, Kuba and Gonchar – the opportunity to prove that they’re not completely fucking awful. And yes, as mind numbingly frustrating as it was to watch these veterans struggle last season, there’s enough reason to believe that each of the three has enough left in the tank to salvage or improve upon whatever intrinsic trade value they have. (Note: Phillips re-upped last season for three years. I know he’s not going anywhere.)
Admittedly, there’s a reason why Erik Karlsson has been a bright light for the organization the past two seasons. It’s exponentially more entertaining to watch young players display the odd flash of brilliance than it is to watch veteran stopgap talent tread water. However, as shitty as the prospect of watching Kuba and Gonchar play another season for a rebuilding team may be, it’s well worth it provided the organization can recoup more future assets for these two players than they would if they cut bait now and lose them for nothing.
And even in the event that Gonchar and Kuba continue to flounder, some kind of credit has to be given to the organization’s reasoning since it’s the kind of smarter asset management that will hopefully lend itself to a better team down the road.
So getting to back to your question, I wouldn’t bench Kuba. If it were up to me, I’d scratch Carkner and have one of Cowen/Rundblad start the season with the Senators. Think what you will of Brian Lee, he skates well, moves the puck better than most and also was Ottawa’s most physical defenceman (Read: His ratio of hits per game led the team’s blueliners.). Perhaps most impressively, he’s actually the only one of the few in Ottawa’s current group who has actually exhibited some kind of chemistry with Chris Phillips.
Inevitably, injuries will occur and trades will be made so Cowen and Rundblad will both get playing time at the NHL level sometime this season. So does it really matter that for one of them, it won't be to start the season in Ottawa?
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