NHL moves toward free-for-all

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Now that the National Hockey League is officially back in business, its 310-day lockout having finally reached a merciful conclusion, 30 general managers and countless agents are in the early stages of a fascinating high-stakes exercise that will go a long way toward determining the league’s competitive makeup when regular-season play begins Oct. 5.

For everyone involved, including hundreds of players without contracts, the uncertainty is palpable.

“It’s uncharted territory,” Los Angeles Kings assistant general manager Kevin Gilmore said. “We’re all doing the same thing. All 30 teams are just digesting the new system and preparing ourselves for the season.”

The new collective-bargaining agreement ratified Thursday by the NHL Players’ Association and approved Friday by the league’s Board of Governors called for a week-long period in which teams may pay two-thirds buyouts of existing contracts without that money counting against this season’s $39 million salary cap.

Clubs have until Sunday to issue qualifying offers to restricted free agents, including minor-leaguers, and negotiate exclusively with their unrestricted free agents. Open season for free agents begins Monday.

Teams have until Thursday to sign entry-draft selections from 2003, with those remaining unsigned going back into this year’s draft Saturday in Ottawa. Thursday also marks the deadline for clubs and players to exercise options on contracts for 2005-06.

While the buyout provision might seem attractive on the surface, especially for teams locked into big-money deals with veterans whose best days are behind them, there is still a very real cost.

“You need two things for buyouts: a player with the type of contract that is not necessarily crippling, but handicaps the team in terms of the upper (salary) limit, and a club that is in position to take the (financial) hit,” Gilmore said. “The fact that those two things need to happen may make buyouts rarer than people think. You can’t just look at it in terms of the cap. You have to view it in terms of cash.”

While other perennial big-spenders such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings might also accept such bottom-line losses, many teams won’t.

The most fun for fans figures to come 1 Monday. Unless they re-sign with their former teams before then, superstars such as Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Mike Modano and Scott Niedermayer will be among the unprecedented number of unfettered free agents.

“It’s going to be a giant fantasy hockey pool,” agent Steve Bartlett told the Buffalo News. “I think there’s going to be a record number of players changing teams. It’ll be chaotic. It’ll be intense. We all have to get our arms around this (new CBA) in a big hurry because there’s no time to spare, no real room for error.”

While large-market clubs no longer figure to dominate free-agent destinations, no one really knows what will be the going rate for certain types of players.

“It’s a dynamic we’ve never had to deal with, either on the team side or the player-agent side,” Gilmore said. “An agent is going to have to look at which teams need a player similar to the player he is representing, and have the room in their budget to spend on that type of player. Then it will be a question of how many other players similar to that player are vying for those spots.

“It’s going to come down to what a team can afford for a certain player, and what that player is willing to take to play for that team.”