Players Delighted By Spending Spree
Players 2, NHL 0.
Just giving you the update on the salary watch in the NHL.
A week after Paul Kariya agreed to a new contract with Anaheim that will pay him $14 million over two years, the same average salary as Colorado’s Joe Sakic, Philadelphia’s Eric Lindros signed a contract extension worth $16 million over two years. Lindros is now the highest-paid player in the game.
The money these players will receive is substantial, but believe it: The teams would not offer to pay it if they didn’t have it. The amount of money is not what makes the teams (and, by extension, the league) the big losers. It is the length of the contracts. After losing Kariya to a 32-game holdout, Anaheim gave him outrageous money in a two-year deal.
Why two-year deals? Kariya and Lindros can watch where the market goes the summer after next and negotiate more prolific contracts. Neither player is tied down in a long-term deal that would put him below his market value for any longer than a few months.
That is a huge victory for the players. It ensures salaries will continue to rise as the best players one-up each other in the salary game. Teams will watch in horror as their best players demand more and more money from a league that does not have a lucrative television contract and still is largely turnstile-driven.
The league will justify the Kariya and Lindros contracts by explaining them as aberrations. Only the superstars of the league will see this kind of money, teams will argue.
But they are wrong. As the Kariya and Lindros boats fill up, the water level rises with them. Players like Detroit’s Sergei Fedorov and the Stars’ Mike Modano are now instantly worth more. Fedorov, in fact, had come down in his contract demands last week.
Until Kariya signed. At which time, Fedorov asked for more money than he originally sought. If Lindros is an $8.5 million man, why isn’t Modano, one of the top five players during the last season and a half, worth $7 million per?
The floodgates have opened. Once the water starts gushing through, it can’t be put back. These are now scary times in the NHL. Only the strong survive.
- Terry Egan, Dallas Morning News
On the ice
Los Angeles defenseman Rob Blake had a goal and an assist Saturday and Stephane Fiset made 36 saves as the Kings beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 in Calgary.
In Tampa, Fla., Darren Puppa had 39 saves as Tampa Bay salvaged a 2-2 tie against the New York Rangers.
Rod Brind’Amour and Eric Lindros scored power-play goals and Garth Snow stopped 14 shots as Philadelphia beat visiting Florida 2-0 to extend its unbeaten streak to seven.
Steve Konowalchuk scored with 3:50 left as Washington defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 in Greensboro, N.C., breaking a six-game winless streak.