Ducks

[GekigangarIII 0]

To be fair, other than giving him a suspension to nurse his jaw, what is the league supposed to do?

15-20 game suspension, leaking into the playoffs. High profile player, severe punishment as an example to the rest of the league that nobody is above the rules. I'd have his ass in the press box for the whole first round.

[M.W. 0]

I don't necessarily condone the stomping but I'm glad someone is doing something to the player whose contract helped set off the RFA fucktardery in the NHL.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Since Scott Stevens, among others (Shanahan, Nedved, Graves, Corson, Gratton, etc. There were matched attempts on guys like Ohlund, Fedorov, Tkachuk, Sakic, too.) signed an offer sheet contract in 1990, and again in 1994, you might want to take Kesler out of your gunsights.

Offer sheets have existed for a while, but the compensation was a bigger deterrent. If anything, the new CBA set off the "RFA fucktardery," if by "set off" you mean "resumed."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_players_w...ed_offer_sheets

Your reaction to sarcasm (though true and not a ridiculous statement) is a bit much. I can justify signing any of those you mentioned (which, btw, happened in a totally different era of the NHL) over Kesler. Sure, the compensations were steep but that's what kept people from giving contracts like the ones Vanek and Penner got. Kesler's contract helped ease teams thinking into "okay, we can sign people on potential and give them an inflated salary they will never come close to earning." Pricey for someone who is at best a 3rd line player.

Given the way an offer sheet works, teams will have to overpay in order to make an unmatched offer sheet. Given the low compensation for offer sheets in the new CBA, offer sheets were bound to happen. Kesler didn't start anything, other than in the most literal definition, as he was the first guy to get one because Nonis futzed around instead of re-signing him. The offer sheets were an inevitability with the new CBA.

If you want to suggest that Kesler, a 23 year old who is second among forwards on his team in icetime per game, is on pace for 23g/40p while playing a shutdown role, ranks in the top 30 in the league in faceoff percentage, leads all forwards on his team in PK icetime per game, and has been one of two main forwards to be essentially carrying the team over the few weeks of the playoff race, has no possibility of ever earning a bigger salary than 1.9 million, that's your opinion.

[mack 44]

That may be how you get around a team matching an offer but it sets an incredibly ridiculous precedent on offers. I shudder to think what possible RFAs with solid numbers (Perry) are going to get.

Yes, that is my opinion and he's justifying some of the salary now, but I'm talking about when the offer was made. Teams are now paying for potential now and that's a dangerous gamble.

[M.W. 0]

That may be how you get around a team matching an offer but it sets an incredibly ridiculous precedent on offers. I shudder to think what possible RFAs with solid numbers (Perry) are going to get.

Yes, that is my opinion and he's justifying some of the salary now, but I'm talking about when the offer was made. Teams are now paying for potential now and that's a dangerous gamble.

With the lower UFA age, and the nature of the offer sheet, teams will have to pay for potential. By the time the average guy will have really started peaking, they'll have hit UFA status and are fair game. I agree that doing this does set a ridiculous precedent, but that's the nature of offer sheets, and will have to be something that GMs take into consideration when they think about making an offer sheet. Do you want to run the risk of getting stuck with a 5 million dollar cap hit who never panned out? At least with the Clarke/Kesler offer, it was on a one-year deal, unlike Lowe's offer sheets, so the player could be re-evaluated after the first season instead of potentially locking the team into paying a guy for 4 seasons when he peaked at age 22.

[mack 44]

I think it's a glaring flaw of the CBA and not much good will come out of it. What's the steepest penalty anyway, a first round pick? I guess all I can do is hope Lowe keeps doing what he's doing to show off the flaw.

[M.W. 0]

I think it's a glaring flaw of the CBA and not much good will come out of it. What's the steepest penalty anyway, a first round pick? I guess all I can do is hope Lowe keeps doing what he's doing to show off the flaw.

The compensation is still somewhat steep for higher-paid players. The oilers gave up, I believe, a first, a second, and a third for Penner, and if I'm Brian Burke and the Oilers offer me that deal, I take it. Above 4.5ish it's 2 firsts, a second and a third, and above 5.5ish, it's 4 firsts. The salary numbers are tied to the league average, I think.

With the importance of drafting and having a strong prospect pool in the salary cap league, combined with the big cap hits that are required to actually succeed with an offer sheet, I think that GMs will still have to strongly consider it before they make an offer. I'd imagine that Lowe felt like he could afford to do it because they picked up picks and prospects at the trade deadline, and could afford to burn some picks to get Penner.

[kosydar 0]

Looks like the steepest is 4 1st rounders.

http://ykoil.blogspot.com/2007/06/nhl-cba-...fer-sheets.html

It seems like teams and offer sheets are going about it all wrong. The teams who should be targeting RFAs are Detroit, Ottawa, Dallas, New Jersey, etc. These are the teams who will be in the top of the league year in, year out. Their draft picks never amount to that much because they're frequently in the 25-30 range. Its retarded for Lowe to sacrifice his draft picks because his picks have a great chance of being very good. Then again, this brings up the argument that the better teams aren't as desperate to get the immediate help as the bad teams are. Still, I know that if the Leafs sign an RFA this summer I'll be pissed, almost regardless of who it is.

[mack 44]

Okay that's fairly steep but not as steep as the old system. That seemed more effective from keeping offers being out there, even if most teams dealt for the picks back.