Parity in the Salary Cap Era?

One of Gary Bettman’s key defenses of the salary cap, other than financial stability of the league, is the parity it provides. Sure, in the four years of the salary cap era, we have see at least three different Stanley Cup winners, four if Pittsburgh can win this year. But does four different Cup winners mean parity? Parity should be defined as the overall competitiveness of the league. This isn’t football, where you can see defending champions miss the playoffs and not be all that surprised. Nor is this baseball, where teams can throw buckets of money at players to sign them. Hockey is unique in that you have to develop your own talent, and be able to keep that talent around, and then fill in the holes with free agents. The exception to this rule is the 2005-2006 Rangers, who did the exact opposite, but still made the playoffs. So how much parity is there in the “new” NHL? Let’s break it down by playoff appearances by the years:

• 2006:
  • Edmonton/Carolina finals, Carolina wins.
• 2007:
  • 5 new teams (3 East, 2 West), teams that didn’t make the playoffs in the salary cap era, make the playoffs.
  • Anaheim/Ottawa finals, Anaheim wins.
  • Neither Edmonton nor Carolina qualify for the playoffs.
• 2008:
  • 2 new teams (2 East, 0 West) make the playoffs.
  • Detroit/Pittsburgh finals, Detroit wins.
  • Both Anaheim and Ottawa qualify, but lose in the first round.
• 2009:
  • 3 new teams (0 East, 3 West) make the playoffs.
  • Detroit/Pittsburgh finals, again.

So of the 30 NHL teams, 26 have made the playoffs at least once in the salary cap era. The four that haven’t: Florida, Toronto, Phoenix, Los Angeles.

But what does all that mean?

It means that, believe it or not, there is some parity in the NHL. Sure, you have the powerhouses that always make the playoffs (Detroit, San Jose, etc), but for the most part, the playoff bound teams have changed from year to year.

Looking forward, you can expect Chicago, Detroit, San Jose, Washington and Pittsburgh to continue making the playoffs, and get high seeds. These are teams with a core of young players under contract for a while. Past that, it’s a bit of a crap shoot. But hey, for now, it looks like the salary cap era, minus the inconsistent officiating, is a success.

Zach Budish Blogging the Combine

Zach Budish, projected second round pick and #22 North American skater, blogged his experience at the NHL combine this week over at kare11.com. It’s an interesting read about what the prospects who are invited to the combine actually go through. It’s much more than just pushups, bench press, sit ups, and verticals. During the bike test, where a prospect bikes as hard as he can for 30 seconds, they actually duct taped his feet tothe pedals. You should head on over and give it a read.

Budish, who has fully recovered from his torn ACL suffered this high school football season, probably won’t fall to the Rangers at their second round pick (the compensatory pick for Alexei Cherepanov). He’s a big dude at 6’3, 227 lbs, and is a decent skater for his size, and has a scoring touch, putting up 26-37-63 in just 37 games in the 2007-2008. If he falls to the Rangers in the 2nd round, he would be a good pickup. Size up front, with a scoring touch, would be a welcomed addition to the Rangers.

Dowzak, Kelowna, Lose in Memorial Cup Finals

This happened a few days ago, and I’m sorry for not posting on it sooner. Tysen Dowzak and his WHL Champion Kelowna Rockets lost in the Memorial Cup to the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, who eliminated fellow Ranger prospect Evgeny Grachev and his Brampton Battalion in the OHL Finals.

Dowzak finished the four game tournament with an assist and 2 PIMs, while playing strong defensive hockey for the Rockets. One of the alternate captains of the team, Dowzak is a force in his own end and a leader on the bench. It will be interesting to watch him develop.

NTC/NMC Page

To follow up on a post made earlier this month listing the Rangers currently with no-trade and no-movement clauses, we added a static page listing that information on the links above. Hopefully this answers some questions about who can be moved.

Rangers Pick #19

The draft positions through the top 26 are set, and the Rangers are picking at #19. In a better development, Scott Glennie, whom I really want the Rangers to draft, even by trading up if necessary, is also the #19 ranked prospect for the May ISS Top 30. Will he fall to the Rangers at 19? I doubt it, but I am hoping he does.

There’s not much more I can say about Glennie that adds on to my original post (first link). The kid is lightning quick, and would probably be top 10 in the NHL in terms of pure speed. He has the offensive talent to match his speed, putting up over a point per game in both the regular season (28-42-70 in 58 GP) and the playoffs (3-15-18 in 12 GP) in the WHL. His play was probably overshadowed by linemate Brayden Schenn (ISS #6), but Glennie matched Schenn stride for stride during the season, showing his high potential. His stock just keeps rising, as scouts are seeing his speed and his talent and realizing that he could be a fantastic NHL player. I’m talking first line talent. His shot is lethal, and incredibly under appreciated, especially when he was dishing the puck to Schenn all year.

If this kid falls past the Oilers, who have the #10 pick, the Rangers have to trade up to get him. There hasn’t been a player like him in NY in a long, long time.

Wings/Pens 2

Well, the Stanley Cup Finals are set, with Darren Helm’s OT winner –and ridiculous single handed penalty kill in the 3rd, wow– the Wings will be hosting the Pens in Game 1, set to begin Saturday at 8pm on NBC. This repeat of last year is going to be a repeat in name only, as the Pens are more experienced, and Osgood isn’t as good as he was last year (but still pretty good in a big spot). Crosby and Malkin are red hot, and should be able to match the Zetterberg/Datsyuk combo goal for goal.

This series comes down to secondary scoring. Can Jordan Staal, Ruslan Fedotenko and Bill Guerin beat out Jiri Hudler, Johan Franzen and the other Swedes? Can the Rafalski outscore Gonchar? Those are the keys to the series. Everything else is roughly evenly matched, even with a slight edge to the Pens (Fleury > Osgood).

This will be wildly entertaining. I think it goes to 7 games, hopefully with the Wings repeating. I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach Cindy raising the Cup.

Rangers Ink Swiss Forward Andreas Ambühl

Update 8:15pm: Further to the post below on steroids and the Washington Capitals, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has his reaction:

“The Washington Capitals have no knowledge of any aspect of this allegation,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “Capitals players were subjected to no-notice testing three times in each of the past two seasons pursuant to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and there was no indication of any improper conduct or wrongdoing. Even though there are no specifics provided in the story and we have no reason, at this point, to believe the allegations are true, the National Hockey League takes all matters of this nature very seriously and will conduct a prompt investigation.”

If there’s one thing the steroids in baseball dramedy (drama + comedy) told me, it’s that these accusers tend to be right. We shall see what becomes of this.
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The Rangers inked another Euro player, but this time it was a forward, Andreas Ambühl. At least this guy has some readily available stats, courtesy of hockeydb. In 2008-2009, he put up 17-24-41, and 98 PIMS in 50 games in the Swiss-A leagues. When the Rangers played, and destroyed, the Swiss team SC Bern, I recall a player being interviewed that he had never seen talent like he had seen on the Rangers (If someone can find that article for me, it would be appreciated).

What I’m getting at there is that the talent level in Switzerland isn’t really much to write home about There’s no way Ambühl makes the team next year, especially with the glut of 3rd liners currently on the roster. He will be heading for Hartford.

I think Sather misunderstood what Stas was saying though, we need more Swedes, not Swiss. Wrong country Slats, but kudos for trying.

By the way, Slats, shouldn’t you be at the draft combine?

I was about to post this, about 15 minutes ago, but I started thinking a bit. This signing may actually spell the end of the Fred Sjostrom era in New York. With Jordan Owens signing a professional contract, at, presumably, less than what a resigned Sjostrom would cost (minimum $920,000 cap hit, Owens has been compared to Sjo with more offensive upside), and this Ambühl signing (taking Owens place in Hartford), Sjostrom may find himself on a different team next year. Just speculation.

Steroids Hit the NHL

In what is probably not-so-breaking-news, Richard Thomas, a steroid dealer arrested in Florida, has named the Capitals as a team that he has supplied steroids to. Players are not mentioned by name in the article, nor is it assumed that Thomas mentioned anyone by name.

With the steroid issue running rampant in baseball and football, it was a matter of time before hockey was subjected to its fair share of steroid publicity. To be honest, if you thought that the league was clean, I must ask what you were smoking. It takes utter ignorance to not believe that hockey players are doping.

As for the future, I wonder if we will ever see the names, or a tough drug policy. This is an issue that Bettman can use to help recover some of his lost legacy. I wonder if he can go 0/3 (expansion, lockout, steroids) in issues that ruin hockey.

Setting the Blair Betts Market; Zherdev Rejects KHL Offer

Many people probably didn’t even look up when reading that the St. Louis Blues resigned center Jay McClement to a three-year deal worth $4.35 million. I mean, who is Jay McClement? Well, McClement is a 26 year old 4th line center that averages 10-10-20 while playing most of his time on the penalty kill. John Davidson calls him “one of the best defensive forwards”.

Hmm. A 4th line center, who excels on the penalty kill, and doesn’t score much. Doesn’t that sound real familiar?

Sure, McClement scores more than Betts, but they are essentially the same player. Is Betts worth a $1.45 million cap hit? Definitely not, and if he asks for that, let him walk. But this definitely sets the market for someone like Betts. Betts could seemingly get a cool mil a year.

If the Rangers weren’t so cash strapped, a $1 million cap hit for Betts would be a reasonable hit. But now, I don’t know. I wonder if someone in Hartford –Jordan Owens? Greg Moore?– can fill that role?

In other news, Nik Zherdev has turned down an offer to play in the KHL:

Rangers forward Nik Zherdev, a restricted free agent, has turned down an offer from KHL club Salavat Yulayev Ufa and wants to play in New York next season.

This is nothing short of fantastic news, as it is incredibly important to keep Zherdev around next year.

Renney to Join Quinn in Edmonton

I find it funny how as more important news comes, posts like this one gets pushed back to help spread things out a bit. It was initially slated to be posted around 5pm yesterday, but the Del Zotto news came, so it got pushed to now. There’s another post on Betts’ market value that got pushed back as well. But that’s not the point.

Tom Renney, who was fired by the Rangers this year, is a quality guy and definitely will be remembered by Ranger fans for helping to end the better part of a decade of futility. We figured he would get another coaching gig in the NHL, and he did, joining Pat Quinn behind the bench as an associate coach for the Oilers. Good for him. I, as all of you should, wish him the best.

In other news around the league:

• Bobby Holik retired. At least he won’t have many money problems.
• Victor Kozlov and Sergei Federov are headed to the KHL. Federov was probably one of the most fun players to watch while he was on the Wings. It seems a lot of the players “defecting” to the KHL are Russian-born players: Radulov, Kozlov, Federov, Zherdev (?). I’m not saying anything, but it’s just an observation. Update 11:50pm: Zherdev turned down his KHL offer. More to come.
• Jim Balsille has finally submitted a formal bid to buy the Coyotes. This team needs to get out of Phoenix, it’s obvious no one in the desert cares about hockey (SHOCKER!). Another team in Ontario would be great for the league.
• Mike Keenan was fired. 1994 was his crowning achievement. I believe he is another who has seen this game pass him by. But you know what, he’s a legend in NY.
• Last, and sadly, Clint Smith passed away at 95. Smith was the last surviving member of the 1940 Stanley Cup championship team, and won two Lady-Byng’s during his career.