Quote:
Originally Posted by Papa_Bear_21
 What? There's a salary cap? Since when? Well I guess that changes everything, huh?
Just go and look at the deal that have been signed since the lockout. Top players have hardly seen any difference (except for the fact that the maximum they can get is capped). In fact, because of the cap floor, I would say that a lot of players are getting better deals than they would have previously. Especially since they can become UFA's at at a much younger age than before the lockout. The difference is that these players are spread out around the league instead of being mostly one 3-4 teams.
Furthermore, being the only team with 20 million to spend is / was really irrelevant because a team with 7 million to spend on 1-2 players still could have offered Cammer
That same year, Martin Havlat got 30 million (for 6 years) from Minnesota, I believe Hossa got a huge deal from Chicago, the list goes on an on.
My point, and I'll try to make it more clearly this time, is that I don't believe that the fact that the Canadiens offered Cammer maybe 1 million dollars more than he would have gotten elsewhere is the major reason he came here. Particularly when you consider most of that money would have been eaten away in taxes anyways. The Canadiens could not sign a prominent free agent the year after they finished first in the conference and first in the league in scoring. They had to trade a first rounder for Alex Tanguay.
The one difference between summer 2009 and all the other summers since free agency began in the early 1990's ( including those after the lockout) was that the Habs acquired a prominent centerman.
I covered this in an earlier post in this thread but how can you so grossly over exaggerate the significance of this trade?
I mean, for how long have you been following the Habs? 10 years?  |
What the top players can get wasn't really anything to do with my argument. The argument being made was that the Habs in the 2009 off season were one of a handful of teams that could offer the contracts they did. Giving them an advantage over the rest.
They came here for the money, period. Scott Gomez played no roll in it, sure it probably made Gio feel a little more comfortable, but it was about, Showing me the money.
Aw the old tax argument, millionaires have much trouble sheltering money, don't they?
Name 2 trades worse? We haven't even seen the end of it this debacle yet. To think we gave up McDonach, Higgins, and Valentenko for a downgrade at center along with an additional 4million dollar cap hit. This trade ranks up there with the worst of them.