DiPietro and Kesler headline big day
TSN.ca Staff
9/12/2006 6:59:21 PM
It was, by any standard you care to use, a remarkable day in the short history of the post-lockout NHL.
Unprecedented doesn't begin to do it justice. Unbelievable is more like it.
First there was the 15-year, $67.5 million contract between netminder Rick DiPietro and the New York Islanders, a deal that left other NHL general managers shaking their head in disbelief.
''Crazy,'' one NHL GM told TSN. ''Just (expletive deleted) crazy.''
But that was just a warm-up to the seismic activity of the afternoon, when the Philadelphia Flyers extended an offer sheet to restricted free agent centre Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks.
It is the first time an NHL offer sheet has been tendered to a Group 2 restricted free agent since the summer of 1999 – more than eight years ago – when the Tampa Bay Lightning attempted to pluck Brett Hauer from the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers matched the Lightning offer then, just as the Vancouver Canucks will match the Flyers' offer now.
Canuck GM Dave Nonis refused comment today on the Kesler situation but sources close to the Canucks said it is 100 per certain that Vancouver will match the Flyers' offer of $1.9 million and keep Kesler in the fold. It's expected Nonis will make a statement at a news conference in Vancouver on Wednesday.
The Kesler offer sheet may not be as attention grabbing as when the New York Rangers tendered an offer sheet to Joe Sakic of Colorado or the Carolina Hurricanes gave an offer sheet to Detroit's Sergei Fedorov – both in the summer of 1997 and on both occasions the players' existing team matched the offers – but the Kesler situation has sent shockwaves throughout the NHL nonetheless.
Whether those waves are good or bad news depends on which side of the fence you're on.
''This is a great day,'' one player agent told TSN. ''It's about time (an offer sheet was tendered). Hopefully, it's the first of many. Maybe the old boys' club is breaking up.''
If the agents were celebrating the possibility of GMs like Philadelphia's Bob Clarke playing cut-throat managing, and opening the door to more offers sheets, many other GMs were furious.
''I thought the DiPietro deal was the height of stupidity but this Kesler deal tops it,'' said one NHL GM. ''Does Clarkie actually think Vancouver isn't going to match? Every team will match. You have to. You have to protect your assets no matter what. All this is going to do is drive up the cost to do business. This is going to be ridiculously inflationary, even in the cap system we have. It's crazy.''
It should be pointed out the Flyers' GM didn't do anything he wasn't entitled to. There is a provision in the new CBA to make offer sheets with the compensation clearly spelled out. If Vancouver chooses not to match, the Canucks will receive Philadelphia's second-round pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft. Amid speculation that injured centre Keith Primeau won't be cleared for contact in time for the beginning of the Flyers' camp on Friday, and may not be able to play at all, Clarke was trying to bolster his team up the middle in the form of Kesler, a hard-driving 22-year-old two-way pivot who scored 10 goals and 23 points in 82 games for Vancouver last season.
But there's no question Clarke's brazen move will impact others, primarily the Canucks, but potentially every team in the NHL.
Here's how the impact will be felt.
In Vancouver, the Canucks presented Kesler with a qualifying offer of $564,000, which is what his base salary was for last season. Extending that offer to Kesler protected the Canucks' rights to the player. Kesler's agent Kurt Overhardt and Nonis have been negotiating a two-year that would pay Kesler $825,000 this season and $850,000 next season. By all accounts, that negotiation was close to being complete when the Flyer offer sheet materialized on Tuesday.
The Canucks have a seven-day period to match the offer or take the compensation in the form of the second-round draft pick. But if they match the offer, and there's seemingly no doubt that they will, they cannot trade Kesler for a period of one year and must pay him a salary of $1.9 million, which is more than double what they expected to.
But the impact league-wide could be significant.
If the Canucks want to hold onto Kesler at the end of this season, they must extend him a qualifying offer of $1.9 million. That qualifying offer can be used as a comparable by other Group 2 players who file for salary arbitration.
''So the going rate for a young 10-goal scorer in this league is going to $1.9 million,'' an NHL GM said. ''We're starting a whole new inflation spiral. It's going to cost every team in this league. It's bad for all us. It's really bad business.''
Another GM said he could understand the Flyers' offer sheet tactic if the Canucks were unable to fit Kesler's $1.9 million under the salary cap, but that apparently is not the case. Sources suggest Kesler's figure of $1.9 million will take Vancouver to $43 million for 22 players – that's $1 million under the cap and one player under the 23-man roster limit.
''This might inconvenience Vancouver a little bit but there was no chance Philadelphia was getting Kesler on the offer sheet, none at all and now we're all going to pay for it,'' the GM said.
Sources say Clarke tried to trade for Kesler earlier in the summer, but was rebuffed by Nonis. When a trade couldn't be worked out, sources said, Clarke suggested to Nonis he might tender an offer sheet, to which Nonis reportedly said he would match under any circumstances.
Not surprisingly, there is all sorts of talk of retribution. Other GMs say they can hardly wait for some of the talented young Flyers – Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, in particular – to become restricted free agents so other teams can make Clarke's life miserable with an offer sheet.
But one GM cautioned against that type of thinking.
''That is precisely how we all ended up in a financial mess before the lockout,'' the GM said. ''One team trying to stick it to another team. You would have thought we had learned our lessons.''
The agents, meanwhile, love that talk. They think the NHL managers have become way too cozy with each other and the spirit of competition isn't as great as it should be.
The big difference now is that the league, as a whole, is protected from runaway inflation. No more than 54 per cent of hockey revenue can be spent on player costs, but that still creates many day-to-day operating headaches for the managers.
Either way, between DiPietro's unprecedented 15-year deal that was negotiated by an owner wouldn't deal with the goalies' agents and the Flyers' stunning offer sheet to Kesler, it was a remarkable day in the post-lockout NHL and one that may be felt on many fronts for some time to come.
