JANUARY 8, 2010

Want to make trades? Be a smarter GM

Now that it’s dawned on much of the hockey intelligentsia that trading players is more difficult than ever under a salary cap system, all I can wonder is ‘what took you so long to figure this out?’

What did you think was going to happen when so much of the league is backed up to the cap ceiling?

With the cap ceiling at 56.8M and the cap floor at 40.8M, you might be surprised to find that the average cap hit per team this season is $54.9M. You have to go all the way down to the 26th highest-spending club, Columbus, to find a team that's cap hit is under $50M, Columbus, at $49.7M.

Here's a list of the "lowest" spending (if you can call $40+M "low" in any sense):

26 Columbus 49.727
27 Dallas 49.701
28 Nashville 44.710
29 NY Isles 44.273
30 Phoenix 42.394

Interesting to note that money doesn't buy success. Phoenix has rebounded this year, sitting in 4th place in the Western conference, despite spending less than any other club. Nashville, always cost-conscious, is in the thick of the playoff race despite ranking 28th on the salary chart. The Toronto Maple Leafs, the league's top-spending team, sits 27th in the standings. The Edmonton Oilers sit sixth on the salary list, but all it got them was a trip to the Western cellar. Carolina, ranked tenth, sits dead last in the league.

So, who can actually make a trade that's not a dollar-for-dollar swap? Look to the "low-priced" clubs noted above. When the rest of the league's GM's wake up to the fact that they've spent themselves into their respective corners, maybe we'll see a normal supply of trading in future seasons.

Don’t say it ain’t psychological: Player responses to Olympic and other snubs

Alex Kovalev, scorer of seven goals over the season's first 38 games, responded to his exclusion from the Russian Olympic roster by scoring four--count 'em!--goals against Philly on January 10th. Five million bucks per season obviously isn't enough to motivate Kovalev, but the exclusion sure worked.

While far more productive than Kovalev, Brad Richards of Dallas had a notable game after his Team Canada exclusion: A goal and two assists in a victory over Anaheim.

Jamie Langenbrunner had a notable response to his inclusion on the Team USA roster, recording his first career hat trick in a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild Jan. 2, just one day after the team was named.

So, when you hear those clichés about the game being "half mental," consider whether it's a cliché at all.

Goodness knows that New York Rangers' left wing Sean Avery is living proof that the game is very mental indeed. After managing just two assists in fourteen games, Avery put his best skate forward against his former club, the Dallas Stars, scoring one goal and three assists Wednesday night.

"I would have liked to see that delinquent do that for us last year," said Stars netminder Marty Turco. "I didn’t think it was possible, really."

Only possible due to Avery getting the mental aspect of his game in order, if only for a day.

Five games in Saskatoon?

Daryl Jones, the hopeful part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, inspired exactly no one in the desert when he exclaimed gleefully that he'd like to see the troubled franchise play five games in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, site of the current World Junior Championship.

“I played junior hockey in Saskatchewan for two years for the Weyburn Redwings, so I understand first hand the appetite of Saskatchewan hockey fans for a high quality brand of hockey,” Jones told the Toronto Star.

Pardon me, but this isn’t the inspiring message that the new owner should be offering to potential ticket buyers in Arizona.

What to do about the All-Star game

Charles Smith chimes in with an excellent idea about what to do about the consistently boring NHL All-Star game, now upstaged by the Winter Classic.