Don't blame the player, blame the game!

Sorry, John, but that’s never gonna change. Don’t put all the blame on the players. Some have taken less money to play where they want.

Yes, Khabby went with the biggest offer, but who gave him that offer in the first place? After all, wasn’t this new CBA supposed to ensure that teams wouldn’t engage in wild free spending, setting the market value much higher for a guy like Khabibulin than his true worth?

Didn’t Blackhawks ownership spurn spending huge piles on money on UFA players in the past?

Now, suddenly, he’s rediscovered the keys to his money bin and is blowing money like the free spenders he used to disdain.

Which only goes to prove, you can’t legislate against stupidity.

John isn’t even talking about legislating against stupidity — he’s addressing the argument from the player’s point of view. Of course there will be another club offering more than the Lightning… that’s not really the point.

Yes, some players have taken less to stay where they want. Those who didn’t, they’ll be criticized by some fans.

James got it — and my criticism of someone taking the money stems from the same talk of how much players like where they are and la-de-da. The players are well aware of the situation – in certain cases they make the sacrifice to stay where they are and keep things together. In others, such as Vinny’s case, or Nikolai Khabibulin’s case — they take what the market offers. If Lecavalier was up for the team concept – if he really did love Tampa Bay and loved playing with Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis — why not take just a bit less so the team can afford to keep them around?

The stupidity of the market is out there (addressing Lyle here) with Chicago throwing money at the wall after crying poverty under the old system… I think it’s been addressed on other blogs pretty well. The whole point of the post was the player perspective – it’s the same as before even though players are full aware that their expectations of financial windfall during the off season need to be grounded unless things change in the league (and the cap grows because of it).

I think there’s going to be more upheval next season because of what’s going on in this offseason. More buyouts, more ridiculous contracts being granted… And it will remain that way until both players and owners grasp the concept of the cap and make the necessary sacrifices to succeed.

My gutt tells me that St. Louis will be one of the players to “take one for the team” in order to stay in Tampa.

Marty is that type of guy (take one for the team) however I think he is probably feeling alittle unwanted right now. He was put lowest on the priorty list to get signed and will now have to take a salary fit for 2nd or 3rd tier player after having been named MVP and winning the cup. He is the heart and soul of this team and to lose him would end all chances of a repeat, in my mind. I understand that Vinny, at 25 yrs old, has more useful life but with all this ‘i love tampa’ b.s. one has to think back to the struggles he has had with the coach and teammates last (played) season.

They should all sit down and watch Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. What’s best for the team is mix between what’s best for the players and the team, not the team or players in isolation. Is it worth it for everyone to give Vinny $1m less per year in order to sign Marty? I think so, why does Marty have to suck it all up? Given them each 5.5-5.75m/year contracts and have a much better chance at a repeat.

Personally, I don’t begrudge Vinny for taking as much as he could get. The goal of most working people is get a job, and work his/her way up the ladder to make some more money. Same with hockey. Being a fan of the Lightning, I would have loved to seen Vinny take a little less and leave more room for St. Louis, but if St. Louis was in the same position I’m not guessing that he would have said “Take a mill or two off that, leave some for Vinny.” For these guys, it is there business (especially now that they’ve won the cup). I have no problem with the Vinny signing (were we supposed to let him go on to possible greatness elsewhere). It’s always a gamble.

On a side note, I hope St. Louis takes a bit less to stick around a few years, and I hope the NHL does real well so we can get some more cap room to sign Brad next year.

John, I concur with what you’re saying and unfortunately didn’t explain myself fully in my earlier post.

Of course the players perspective hasn’t changed. It was well laid out before and during the lockout, that being they wanted a system where they could get “fair market value”. With free agency, loyalty to one’s self in most cases trumps team loyalty and that’s not going to change, no matter what. There’s no way you’ll get that genie back in the bottle.

I just wanted to point out that, as long as there’s another team willing to overpay, loyalty to a team will become of secondary interest to many players.

Unfortunately, that’s the business of hockey and of North American pro sports.

Obviously Marty and his agent were looking for huge $‘s. If he was such a take one for the team guy he would have asked for less to get signed early. He probably calculated that they should ask for 6-7, maybe get it and if not get the 4-5 he would have gotten anyway by signing early. It was a small gamble and he lost, now he has a choice to make, stay for less or go for more. He put himself in this position so let’s not blame Vinny.
 Also, yes he had a great season and is a great player but goals aren’t everything and you don’t get them by yourself, he is aging and he is very small by NHL standards, Teams will be playing him differently, gunning for him hard, and it’s just a short matter of time before he loses a step and starts getting the concussions and nagging injuries.

Come on you guys, you have to be kidding me with this.

How can you expect these guys to take less than they can get? Be happy Vinnie signed with Tampa long term instead of choosing to test the open market next year.

I think (echoing bloggers like Tom and Lyle) you’re mad at the wrong people. If you don’t like the new NHL blame Bettman. There’s no room for teams like Tampa, Vancouver, and Ottawa in this league.

You guys lost Khabibulin and will probably lose St. Louis to parity in the short term and will likely lose Richards in the long term. Vancouver lost (or will soon lose) most of their defense to parity . Ottawa is going to lose either a world class forward or world class defenseman in the short term and more in the long term to parity.

It’s not fair for all the great work you guys have done, but it’s the system we have to live with.

I’m sure if you were in a position to make 4 million dollars you would take it no matter where you had to go. And I would too.

To call a guy selfish for doing what just about anyone would do says more about you than it says about the player you are talking about.

What are Marty’s alternatives? Sign a $4-5mm long-term contract with TB or get traded. If he is demanding 6.75m like Vinny what teams have the room in their caps to pay that?

That’s true, Mark, everyone seems to be spending close to the cap and th $$ well is running dry.

Limey,

Bettman is not the bad man here. No one is. They all signed the CBA. The players got the early free agency the owners got a linked cap with escrow. The instability caused by the work stoppage has everyone scrambling around trying to outmaneuver each other in an unknown marketplace… players, GM’s, everyone. So, I chalk up a lot of the current situation to that.

The truth is that if the players believe half of the things that come out of their mouths then over time they will come to re-assess their priorities. Money will not be as big an issue as the quality of their work place, their teammates, where their kids go to school and the like. I’ve done it. They can do it. You can, after all, only wear one pair of pants at a time.

The culture hasn’t changed yet because the players are the same. They grew up in the spoiled years and are still acting that way, the wounds from the lockout are still fresh. I’d like to see how things look in 5 years. Will there be a higher percentage of players taking the ‘hometown discount’ than there are now? If so, then the CBA from that perspective is a success. If not, then it needs to be revised to acheive that.

There are real discrepancies between the financial potential of the 30 markets that make up the NHL and these need to be normalized in some way.

Frankly, if I were Feaster and Vinnie told me how much he wanted I would have shown him the door, wihtout a second thought. Anyone that selfish is unfit for this CBA. This is where I think Tom Benjamin is wrong. You can build an elite team under this CBA, but you are looking for elitism in slightly different ways than before. It’s going to come from within the players that make up the team, not the contents of the owners’ bank accounts.

Ta,