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Say it ain't so,
Joe! August 29, 2008 -- LOS ANGELES -- So here’s the latest rage in pro athletics. Accomplished and acclaimed athlete walks away from the stage and then hangs his team out to dry deciding if he wants to return for one last try to capture a championship. Us folks south of the border had to struggle with the Brett Favre saga every moment throughout the summer. Last season, the defending champion Anaheim Ducks could never get any chemistry or momentum rolling while waiting for Scott Neidermayer and Teemu Selanne to end their fence sitting. Somewhere in Scandinavia, Mats Sundin is probably flipping coins like Harvey Two Face in the Dark Knight to decided if and where he wants to play.
It’s tough enough to be a general manager in the days of free agency and salary caps, so when star athletes can’t show the same decision making ability regarding their careers than they do during in game situations, you don’t have to wonder why most don’t last long. On Tuesday, Joe Sakic served up the latest version of Hold Up the Franchise by agreeing to come back for one (alleged) final season as captain and center for the Colorado Avalanche. "Ultimately it came down to the fact that I still enjoy playing and competing," Sakic said in the team's news release. "I'm comfortable with my conditioning and my overall health. I'm ready for the start of camp and looking forward to the upcoming season.” Sounds good, but is his return really in the best interest of the franchise? From a ticket sales standpoint, it certainly will keep the coffers of the team robust but on the ice the Avs might be better served to apportion the time to younger talent that needs to be developed. At least Joe was nice enough not to open the bidding to other teams, he conveyed to his agent Don Baizley that it was Denver or home. From a roster standpoint, Sakic’s return will have him on the number one line and prevents a move by winger Wojtek Wolski to the middle. Like his football cousin Favre, Sakic is a first ballot Hall of Famer, a two time Cup winner and the face of the franchise since their move from Quebec. So does Sakic deserved the time to come to his decision just a couple of weeks before training camp opens? Of course he does and his GM Francois Giguere agreed, going as far as saying that Sakic could have made his decision as late as the night before training camp opens. His teammates sweated out the decision too, with both Adam Foote and Ian Laperriere expressing relief and gratitude when learning of the return. But as a conspiracy theorist I say of course they’re happy, each guy is probably playing their last season in the NHL and sees Joe as their last best chance to win a Stanley Cup. But the price of Joe’s return doesn’t come cheap. He gave them a minimal home team discount, signing on for an even $ 6 million as opposed to the $ 6.75 million he slaved for last season. Given his statistics last season, that price looks more like a thank you for all the good times than appropriate for his 2007-’08 production. In an injury racked season that saw him appear in only 44 games due to the effects of a sports hernia, Sakic posted career lows with 13 goals and 40 points and a minus rating (-4) for the first time in nine seasons. I’m not saying that Sakic is necessarily done because he was coming off a 100 point season in 2006-’07 but at the advanced hockey age of 39 and with the annual Peter Forsberg experiment failing miserably last season, that’s a lot of green to give any player that missed half the season. The signing leaves Giguere $ 5 million of cap room as the season begins. He won’t have the pressure of having to consider a Forsberg signing because the Great Swede’s foot problems have him far away from another return. Maybe he’s just waiting for March to pick up another $ 1 million to be an injury scratch in the playoffs. But will Joe’s return be a successful one? The Avs went as far as they could with the collection of talent last season. They finished sixth in the Western Conference and then beat an evenly matched Minnesota Wild team in the first round of the playoffs, rallying from consecutive overtime losses to win the last three games of the series. That was the good news; the bad news was the 21 goals surrendered in a second round sweep by the eventual Cup champions Detroit Red Wings and one wonders if the memory of the final 8-2 crushing by the Winged Wheel still is floating around in the collective psyche of the team. With training camp just around the corner, the Avalanche are not better with Sakic strapping on the skates for the last time primarily because they lack a number one goaltender. Jose Theodore flew the coup to watch the back of Alex Ovechkin in the Nation’s Capital and free agent signee Andrew Raycroft isn’t the answer. Last year’s number two netminder, Peter Budaj didn’t start a game in the post season and he rightfully earned his secondary role with his play. So the Avalanche look more like a first round elimination than a champion, so there will be no storybook ending for Captain Joe come the spring.
2008 Western Hockey Network |
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