The bridge contract has become the Bridge over the River Kwai. Blown to bits this week by general managers in Buffalo and Winnipeg who might as well have whistled while they worked at eviscerating the CBA.
Because honestly, if teams are not going to exercise leverage the one time they own it when dealing with an established player — and that is, on the contract following entry level — then what is the point of having it?
The NHL started on its way down the slippery slope just before Owners’ Lockout III when Edmonton, Carolina and Boston began signing pretty good but hardly remarkable players not yet even out of entry level to extensions in the six-year, $36 million range for no good reason at all.
There has been some effort to suggest that signing players to multi-year extensions that eliminates arbitration years and might buy out a handful of unrestricted free agency seasons is ultimately cost effective and I am sure in certain cases that is true.
But someone please explain what numbers Jack Eichel could possibly put up in Buffalo over the next four seasons that would turn the eight-year, $80 million extension he was granted this week — and for which the Sabres were hailed — into a cost-saver?
Ten million dollars a year for a player — as gifted and motivated as the 20-year-old center might be — who in 143 career games had recorded 48 goals and 114 points for a team that hadn’t come close to contending for a playoff spot.
More per year than Sidney Crosby and Evegni Malkin earn in Pittsburgh. More per year than Carey Price earns in Montreal. More per year than Alex Ovechkin earns in Washington. More per year on a deal for which Eichel had zero negotiating leverage. Zero.
There might be exceptions to the rule, but if there are it is only because NHL GM’s who operate under the most restrictive governing document in pro sports waived their leverage while creating stupid precedents in previous unwarranted cases; e.g., Jeff Skinner, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, to name three.
Connor McDavid, the guy who is faster than a speeding bullet, is one. Auston Matthews, after only 84 games in the league, most certainly appears to be another. But that is why they are called generational players.
Genuflect before me if I am wrong, but has anyone ever applied that tag to Nikolaj Ehlers? Nevertheless, the Jets rushed to sign the winger who had recorded 40 goals and 102 points in his first two seasons to a seven-year extension worth $6 million per.
And there in Tampa Bay is generational talent Nikita Kucherov working for $4.767 million per on his second deal because his GM, Steve Yzerman, swung the hammer when he had it and forced the Russian winger to cross the bridge when he came to it.
But just about everywhere else, the bridge has been demolished by GM’s who have no one to blame but themselves.
This has nothing to do with the opener in Columbus the other night in which Thomas Greiss was pretty much left on his own by his teammates in the Islanders’ 5-0 defeat, but I never quite get the organization’s reluctance to acknowledge Jaro Halak as its No. 1 in nets.
What a terrific idea, this partnership between the Devils and the NWHL Riveters on multiple platforms that will enhance the visibility of women’s hockey.
Would that the Rangers, Islanders and, indeed, the NHL invest in similar relationships to promote the game.
Everyone can play means girls, too.
I have nothing but admiration for the effort put into the endeavor of updating the NHL.com data base to include game logs for every player in NHL history and the summaries for every game in league history.
But the first time I attempted to use the site for research, I discovered a flaw that forced to me check multiple websites to complete what should have been a rather routine task.
I knew that upon making his debut on Thursday that
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would become the fourth youngest player in Rangers history and I knew that Harry Lumley, Len Wharton and Don Raleigh were the three who had been younger.
But when I attempted to research Lumley’s age in making his debut in 1943-44, I couldn’t do it on NHL.com because Lumley played for both the Rangers and Red Wings that year and there is no way to tell for which team he played in any game.
Game logs only indicate the sites of games, not players’ teams.
So I needed to check other websites to determine when he was traded. In fact, he was not traded. As an emergency goalie, he was loaned to the Rangers by Detroit for one game. I had to check his bio to determine when that was. In this case, that information was not available.
The best information I gleaned was that Lumley had replaced Ken McAuley for the final 20 minutes of a game. Only then was I able to determine that Lumley made his debut for the Rangers at the age of 17 years and 43 days in Detroit on Dec. 23, 1943.
Again, I appreciate all of the work that went into updating the NHL.com database. But maybe the folks there could tweak it.
Finally, did no one mention to Jesper Fast, who gave up No. 19 in order to accommodate Jean Ratelle’s upcoming jersey retirement, that he will have to switch again when Ilya Kovalchuk claims his No. 17 next year?