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Around the League: 2019-2020 Regular Season

Gordon: If it’s dumb to make the goalie your best-paid player, why are good teams doing it?

If one were to be bloody-minded, one might adjust for local taxes and point out that Bobrovsky and Vasilevskiy will reap more actual dollars from their contracts than Price will. But one is not so gauche.

So here’s the question: If this is such a stupid idea and Bergevin is an imbecile for doing it, why is the GM of the planet-smashing, all-conquering Lightning making the same mistake? Or the guy in Florida who built a Cup-winner in Chicago, has crafted an on-the-cusp young team in Sunrise and just hired maybe the best coach in the league?

Perhaps – and hear me out on this – it’s because the conventional wisdom is not so wise. Or at very least, that it does not apply universally.

As with all other generalizations (he generalized), the problems arise from exceptional cases. There are some goalies in the NHL who are, in fact, worth huge dollars. They aren’t many, and doing so is no guarantee of success, but it’s wrong to imagine an élite netminder can’t move the needle meaningfully.
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https://theathletic.com/1111386/201...best-paid-player-why-are-good-teams-doing-it/
 
A dumb question by someone who is either playing Devil's Advocate or is just as equally dumb.

Because goaltenders usually fluctuate, it's rare to have a consistently good/great goaltender like Lundqvist. Because the difference between the elite and very good is marginal, while the salary isn't. Because goaltenders are the only players that are not allowed to make any mistakes as the margins are so low. Because etc.

An even dumber question than the title of his article, If this is such a stupid idea and Bergevin is an imbecile for doing it, why is the GM of the planet-smashing, all-conquering Lightning making the same mistake?

I mean, isn't this very obvious?

Because the Tampa Bay Lightning can easily afford to. Not because of taxes, but because they're one of the best (if not the best) teams in the NHL at drafting and developing cheap players who produce.

The Montreal Canadiens have produced nine NHLers via the draft in the last decade. (Ten if you count Hudon, I won't) Only four of them are still with the organization. There's only one who's established himself as a top-end (top pairing d-man or first line forward) in Brendan Gallagher, three who are top-6 forwards or top-4 d-men. By comparison, Tampa Bay has drafted 16 players who have become NHLers in the last decade. Eight of them are top-6 f/top-4 d-men, four of them are top-end.

So what happens when you don't draft anybody that become NHLers? You have to pay full value (or grossly overpay) for UFAs or you have to give up assets (usually futures) to acquire established players who aren't on their ELCs. Suddenly, the $10.5M given to Price affects the cap situation a lot more because there isn't cheap youth outplaying their contracts.
 
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Not to mention, Tampa got a better deal. 1M less per yr (vs Price) and more importantly, the deal ends when Vasilevskiy is 33.
 
Given our cap space situation, paying Price makes sense. If it wasn't for his contract we would be sitting on 20M cap space, or Haven an even dumber contract on our hands. He's also the only player on this team actually moving the needle (to use Geeman expression), which is actually a bad thing for tank nation.

Having nearly guaranteed great goaltending is worth it.

If Price contract was preventing us from acquiring or retaining top talents I might reconsider, but that's not the case.
 
GrandWazoo said:
Given our cap space situation, paying Price makes sense. If it wasn't for his contract we would be sitting on 20M cap space, or Haven an even dumber contract on our hands. He's also the only player on this team actually moving the needle (to use Geeman expression), which is actually a bad thing for tank nation.

Having nearly guaranteed great goaltending is worth it.

If Price contract was preventing us from acquiring or retaining top talents I might reconsider, but that's not the case.
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Problem is he hasn`t moved the needle in years

Granted he had injuries but at 10.5 you need the MVP Price , not a very good 31.

This team simply isnt good enough to pay a 31 year old his money .

Panthers and Lightning are different rosters

Florida has a decent developed nucleus who got abysmal netminding for years . If Bobo gives them a very good season they should make the playoffs

Their core is locked up in their mid 20`s and now have a top coach

TB is loaded with talent and this contract locks up Vasy for his best years not like Carey`s decline years
 
GEEMAN said:
Problem is he hasn`t moved the needle in years

Granted he had injuries but at 10.5 you need the MVP Price , not a very good 31.

This team simply isnt good enough to pay a 31 year old his money .

Panthers and Lightning are different rosters

Florida has a decent developed nucleus who got abysmal netminding for years . If Bobo gives them a very good season they should make the playoffs

Their core is locked up in their mid 20`s and now have a top coach

TB is loaded with talent and this contract locks up Vasy for his best years not like Carey`s decline years
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I disagree. He had a bad season last year and after a rocky start of the year he was back in top form. To prove he moves the needle, he had the highest game points share of any goalie in the league last year. He also also had the 7th best GSAA. Coincidentally, he also finish 7th for the Vezina. He had a really good year starting in December. Without him we're nowhere close to a playoff spot.

You can't expect goalies to have MVP seasons every year, but what you pay for is the expectation that he will at least be very good. Non-elite goalies tends to have much bigger swings in performance.

I'm not as worry about the 31 years old, he's not a forward, goalies tends to keep performing well into their 30s. 36-37 seems to be a better cutoff for goalies in term of performance. Hell Bob is only one year younger than Price.

Despite the desire of many, we were not going to go through multiple years of tanking, therefore Price made sense for this team to give us a shot to fight for a playoff spot every year.

It's a lot of money for a goalie, but it's not like we would magically be able to spend it on a top 10 forward in the league. He's the most important player on the team, the only one that can truly make a difference, and he's paid accordingly.
 
GrandWazoo said:
I disagree. He had a bad season last year and after a rocky start of the year he was back in top form. To prove he moves the needle, he had the highest game points share of any goalie in the league last year. He also also had the 7th best GSAA. Coincidentally, he also finish 7th for the Vezina. He had a really good year starting in December. Without him we're nowhere close to a playoff spot.

You can't expect goalies to have MVP seasons every year, but what you pay for is the expectation that he will at least be very good. Non-elite goalies tends to have much bigger swings in performance.

I'm not as worry about the 31 years old, he's not a forward, goalies tends to keep performing well into their 30s. 36-37 seems to be a better cutoff for goalies in term of performance. Hell Bob is only one year younger than Price.

Despite the desire of many, we were not going to go through multiple years of tanking, therefore Price made sense for this team to give us a shot to fight for a playoff spot every year.

It's a lot of money for a goalie, but it's not like we would magically be able to spend it on a top 10 forward in the league. He's the most important player on the team, the only one that can truly make a difference, and he's paid accordingly.
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Starting in December is not a good year , its more like 50 games to the finish

Bottom line be MVP caliber Carey to earn that contract

He has had a major swing in performance and injury since his last elite year , not just lesser rated netminders .

Even though we werent going to tank missing these playoffs over Nero`s tenure is not much different than a gut job , he turned over most of this roster
 
There is still no other available player that could have made a bigger impact on this team. Better to spend that money on Price than not at all.
 
CH1 said:
Yeah... but as I said, the more important factor is the peak age the contracts capture.
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Tampa is also paying UFA money for non-UFA years but yes, they're getting all the peak years.

I'm not too worried about goalies up until about 36 years old. There might be some decline until then but they generally keep their level pretty high. After 35 it starts to drop more.
 
Price will be 39 when his contract expires.

Anyway, who knows what the future holds. My view is the writer tried to make a point (everyone is doing it) but wasn’t very convincing because he didn’t dig deep into the different circumstances.
 
CH1 said:
Price will be 39 when his contract expires.

Anyway, who knows what the future holds. My view is the writer tried to make a point (everyone is doing it) but wasn’t very convincing because he didn’t dig deep into the different circumstances.
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38, he's born in August. I don't really like the last 3 years of that contract TBH.
 
The general manager and team president doesn’t have a contract and interviewed for another job. Two assistant general managers and several scouts left and were not replaced. The goalie coach was allowed to leave, and a new one hasn’t been hired with a month to go until training camp.

Over the course of a summer where the Carolina Hurricanes have done solid business to upgrade their roster, their front office has already seen a considerable exodus. If Don Waddell departs the Hurricanes — the out-of-contract president and GM interviewed for the Minnesota Wild vacancy on Monday — it would not only be unprecedented, but also it would leave the Hurricanes rudderless at a moment when they desperately need to capitalize on the momentum of last spring’s playoff run.
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https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article233585707.html
 
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