1) As announced last Thursday, Matts Sundin officially announced his retirement from hockey. By doing so he mercifully must have read our post of 2 weeks ago when we pleaded with Sundin and Forsberg:"for-love-of-god-go-away" Now, don't get us wrong here we are not detracting from Sundin's accomplishments. In fact we would tell our readers to not let the lack of a Stanley Cup on his resume fool you. Instead we'd add Sundin to the list (headed by Ernie Banks) of the best professional athletes to not win their league's championship. Undoubtedly the former Maple Leaf will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
2) However we were sick and tired of his (and several others) antics recently of 'agonizing' over their futures only to have them linger weeks and months. Allowing the rumor whores such as Eklund to speculate on the 30 or so teams rumored to be interested, etc. WE are thankful Sundin eliminated his name from what would have been countless fictitious rumors of where/when he would return.
3) Which brings us to his countrymen, Peter Forsberg. If printed/electronic reports are to be believed, he is ready to resume his NHL career. He can't play for MoDo anymore now that the NHL season has commenced without disqualifying himself from play in the NHL this season so right now Forsberg's future is unknown. IF, and that's a HUGE IF, he is healthy, he is only 36, and potentially could add significantly to a team. The problem is the old bugaboo, the salary cap. We'd have to assume Peter would only return to a contender, so what contending team has cap space to fit FOPPA? What would his asking price be?
4) If recent history is to be followed we couldn't see him playing for LESS than a prorated figure of about 4-5 milion. AS best we can tell(The NHL doesn't publish cap liabilities), none of the anticipated top tier teams(Boston, Carolina, Calgary, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, Rangers, Pittsburgh, Philly, Vancouver, or Washington) have more than 3.5 mil in space-assuming they'd want to use al their available space on him without making another roster move to fit him in. So IF Peter is interested in returning its likely to be a protracted, drawn out situation that we'll probably be duscussing during the holidays. We can hope/pray that its resolved like the Sundin issue has been, but unlikely. Somewhere Dwayne Klessel (Eklund's real name) is praying it doesn't!
6 comments:
So Faux do you not consider my Sharks a top tier team or do we have cap space? Just playin with you guys. I know ya probably just forgot about us right?
I didn't comment on your predictions but I couldn't just let this one go by without saying nuthing here. I think Forsberg would be a great fit here in Jersey. Lou is a magician and if he wants Forsberg we will get him. I think thats why we didn't keep Shanny.
Sundin has been one of my all time favourite players here. I think the team is still missing his veteren presence. I would have loved to see him suit the Blue and White one last season. Maybe Burkie can change his mind.
1) Firstly ThankYou to FR for their post recognizing our nailing the Phoenix outcome.
2) Jintzie: Yes an oversight. The Sharks actually have the least cap space(as far as we can tell) of any of the contending teams
3)Chompsey: anything is possible. We wouldn't rule out Lou getting his man. Not certain the Shanahan issue had anything to do with Forsberg
4) Blaine: I think that ship sailed long ago. Feeling were hurt when he refused to lift his NTC 2 years ago
Faux I have a question for ya. Even if he retires does Shanny's salary still count on our cap. ne of my buddys says it does cause he's over 35. If it counts why not keep him anyays? It don't make sense to me.
1) Chompsey: Great point! Your friend is correct. A team can't get dispensation from the salary cap liability of a player over 35 by retirement. Only long term injury(see Mogilny)
2) Unless Lou is trying to arrange to have Shanahan evaluated by a Dr who will say his hip is so far degenerated that he can't play any longer the devils will have to eat that cap space this season! If so, it was another bad move by Lamarello. You think he'd know better
Post a Comment