Draft Day Notes >>>

[Angelus]

Oh, I agree...he's gotta do what's best for the team...I'm just saying, next GM meetings in Arizona, he might find himself golfing in a "one-some" lol.

Also...not to many GM's are going to do him any favours in the trade market, I presume.

Meh...

The players screw us...the league screws us....it's about time the other GM's screw us as well!

Although I guess Burke already did that by trading us Lupul for Pronger...

[FlyersFan]

[FlyersFan]

Ducks GM Burke calls Edmonton offer to Penner 'gutless' - NHL - Yahoo! Sports


burke really is right about offering a guy 4.5M from 450K and how it effects everyone in the league. league can't sustain itself if guys like Penner are going to increase their salary 10 fold like that. just doesnt' work with hockey's economic structure. not enough revenue, tv money etc...to support it. good luck with him angelus. by all local accounts you're going to get him. i kind of hope he is a huge bust for offering him that kind of contract. but then again i do feel bad for oilcan fan so i don't know what to think

[Angelus]

The problem is, to get players here we have to OVERPAY. That's life. Sorry, but Penner making 4m per year is NOT going to kill the league.

And I disagree with your statement that escalating salaries cannot work with the NHL's economic structure. That's simply not true. The Salary cap is directly tied to profits. The reason it went up 5million is because profits are up that much. If profits decrease, so does the cap. But the cap keeps going up and there's a reason for that. So everything that happened (Gomez/Drury at 7m, Penner at 4m, Vanek at 7m) can be sustained by the economic structure in the league. That was the whole point of the last CBA.

Burke is just whining. I could care less what he thinks. We basically handed him the cup last year by giving him Pronger for almost nothing. In any case, I'm not sold on Penner and hope Burke matches. But yeah...I think Penner is an Oiler.

[FlyersFan]

Actually Angelus- the salary cap isn't directly tied to profits. That is simply not true. There was an agreement that it would increase each year by a certain percentage, that is the only reason the players agreed to it. And the fact is that a lot of teams can't afford to play AT the salary cap this season. BUF can't get near the cap, NAS can't get near the cap, COL can't get near the cap...i could go on. So yes, those salaries are going to hurt the league in the long run. It is going to create a situation where players are overpaid and we are going to be right back to where we were before. Where a few teams make money and the rest lose money, or some teams simply aren't going to be able to compete. You are only allowed 3 years in the collective money pool and that 3 years is coming to an end for a number of the bottom 10 teams in the league.

[Angelus]

The cap is formally titled the Upper Limit of the Payroll Range in the new CBA. For the 2005-06 NHL season, the salary cap was set at US$39 million per team.

Due to better-than-expected revenues in each of the past two seasons, the cap was raised to $44 million for the 2006-07 NHL season, will be set at $50.3 million for the 2007-08

The salary cap is tied to profits. There was no agreement about a certain percentage increase. Nobody could have guessed it would increase over 10mil in two seasons.

Penner making 4m is not going to kill the league. Having the NYR spend over 80M in a season would. That was the problem before the lockout. But now, that is restricted...and as long as profits continue to increase the salary cap will as well.

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

I understand the cap to be tied to revenues as well...I think Ang is right. That was the whole point of the strike...Bettman wanted it directly tied to revenues. It could go up or down each year...depending...and I'm almost positive it isn't guaranteed to go up every year by a certain percentage like FF says, don't know where he heard that. That's what I have always heard in media reports anyway...

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

And a good question about the Oilers from the Toronto Sun...

A question worth posing in retrospect: If Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe is willing to spend $4 million a year for Penner or $8 million a year for Tomas Vanek, tell me again why he couldn't afford to keep Ryan Smyth in Edmonton?

[Angelus]

And a good question about the Oilers from the Toronto Sun...

A question worth posing in retrospect: If Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe is willing to spend $4 million a year for Penner or $8 million a year for Tomas Vanek, tell me again why he couldn't afford to keep Ryan Smyth in Edmonton?

He could afford it. That wasn't the issue. From all reports, the Oilers kept upping their offers and Smyth never lowered his asking price. Plus, the Oilers felt he was a great player, but not an elite player.

Hindsight is 20/20. If Lowe could go back, he'd probably give in. However, that was never about whether or not he could afford Smyth...it was always about whether or not they believed Smyth was worth what he was asking.

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

He's a hell of alot more elite than Dustin Freaking Penner. Lowe looks like a fool IMO. If Vanek was worth 8, and Penner 4, then Smyth, your leader, Captain, most popular player is certainly worth 6.

[flmmkrz]

He's a hell of alot more elite than Dustin Freaking Penner. Lowe looks like a fool IMO. If Vanek was worth 8, and Penner 4, then Smyth, your leader, Captain, most popular player is certainly worth 6.

I agree.

The funny thing is if Smyth were never an oiler Lowe probably would've targeted him this offseason and thrown at least what the avs threw at him but when he had him in the system he wouldn't budge from the 5.1. Im glad Smyth didn't back down, he deserved a pay day. Lowe would probably have had an easier time this offseason if they had treated Smyth better, who would want to join the oil after they treated their former best player that way coupled with living in Edmonton.

[Angelus]

He's a hell of alot more elite than Dustin Freaking Penner. Lowe looks like a fool IMO. If Vanek was worth 8, and Penner 4, then Smyth, your leader, Captain, most popular player is certainly worth 6.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but if Penner put up 29 goals at 23 yrs old and Smyth put up 30 goals at 32 yrs old...maybe Penner at 4mil is better than Smyth at 6mil? I don't know...but maybe this season will tell us that...

Btw, Smyth wasn't our captain.

[FlyersFan]

my parents can't stand hockey and they got a 9 x 12 glossy of themselves with the Stanley Cup.......:bang: :bang: ....i was out of town.....:bang:

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

Btw, Smyth wasn't our captain.

lol...oops, right. He's Canada's captain.
He shoulda been this year though with Smith gone.
That's going to be tough with him playing in the same division as the Oil now too, playing on Sakic's line.

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

my parents can't stand hockey and they got a 9 x 12 glossy of themselves with the Stanley Cup.......:bang: :bang: ....i was out of town.....:bang:

Make a trip to Toronto, and you can get that picture any day between 9-8, for about 6 bucks.