Cap for the Cup

GREENBURGH, N.Y. – Two years ago, the futures of the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes appeared uncertain.

Now, they’re preparing to face off in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C.

A lot had to happen for these two teams to make it this far, but it seems unlikely that either would be here without the lockout that wiped out all of the 2004-2005 season.

It took that lockout for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to implement the new salary cap-based Collective Bargaining Agreement he believed the league needed for small-market teams such as the Hurricanes and Oilers to survive.

That they are the sole survivors of the Stanley Cup tournament makes them exhibits Nos. 1 and 2 that the new system is working.

“It could be some of that,” said Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe, whose team practiced again at the Rangers’ suburban New York facility Saturday before flying down to Raleigh. “Certainly the CBA has impacted the success of these teams that are in the Finals.”

The Hurricanes were so frequently mentioned as a franchise likely to move for economic reasons that they began this season with the slogan “Here to play, here to stay” in an attempt to convince their sometimes invisible fans they weren’t going anywhere.

The Oilers never had a problem with fan support. Their troubles were strictly economic.

Lowe’s Oilers made the playoffs twice in his first four years on the job, but they lost in the first round both times and it appeared it would take a miracle to put together a team that would go further than that.

“We always liked to say we had relative success in Edmonton,” Lowe said.

There were financial restrictions from the team’s comparatively low revenue, plus the disadvantage of having to pay players in American dollars while taking in the weaker Canadian dollar (which is now much stronger). That made it difficult to re-sign players when they came looking for a raise.

The perfect example was center Doug Weight, who now plays for the Hurricanes. Weight was just one year away from unrestricted free agency in 2001 when Lowe traded him to St. Louis. Lowe knew he wouldn’t be able to match the offers Weight received on the open market, so he dealt him while he could get something for him.

“He really seemed to define the plight of the economics of the previous CBA,” Lowe said of Weight.

As discouraging as that may have been, however, Lowe always had an eye on the expiration of the old CBA in 2004 and persuaded head coach Craig MacTavish to believe that there was hope for the future.

“People expected more, but the goal line in 2004 was definitely enough to keep me interested,” Lowe said. “I think I was able to convince (MacTavish) that it was worth waiting for.”

When the NHL reopened for business in July, Lowe jumped into action. Even with a 24 percent rollback of previously existing contracts, some teams had to dump players to get under the salary cap. At the same time, players such as Blues captain Chris Pronger were more affordable for the Oilers with his salary rolled back.

So, Lowe pulled off a trade with the Blues for Pronger and signed him to a five-year deal for $6.25 million per season. He also gobbled up center Mike Peca from the Islanders, who had to dump Peca’s $3.99 million salary.

Peca and Pronger have been integral pieces of the Oilers’ remarkable Stanley Cup run, as have trade deadline acquisitions Dwayne Roloson and Sergei Samsonov.

“We always thought we had the nucleus and were a team that was lacking a component or two,” MacTavish said, “and when the new deal arrived, that allowed us to go out and get a Hart Trophy winner in Pronger and Selke Trophy in Peca. And then we had the wherewithal in young assets to get a guy like Roloson as well.”