Quote:
Originally Posted by dave babych returns
Campbell is in the top 2% of cap hits for regulars at his position, contrast that with Luongo who is not close to the top 10%.
Campbell is a top pairing defenseman for sure but still probably not as much of an impact player as Luongo.
And this is completely putting aside the Blackhawks absolute desperation to move his contract, the Campbell deal came at the end of a long campaign of trimming salary from the Blackhawks roster and he was the biggest (and least palatable) contract all along except for Cristobal Huet.
The Canucks as I mentioned won't have trouble icing a full roster even with $9.3m committed to Schneider and Luongo and can start the season with both players.
The situations aren't nearly as similar as you've implied they are.
Don't take this to say that I am claiming the Canucks will get Nick Bjugstad, my intent is to point out that the Canucks aren't looking for a team to do them a favour in taking Roberto Luongo's contract - they will be looking to get value in return and it almost certainly won't be an insignificant aspect of an eventual deal.
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When Campbell was traded he was a 32 year old dman signed for 5 more years. Yes, his cap hit was high, but 5 years is pretty much just right term wise. Florida got a top pairing dman on a reasonable term while giving up nothing in return except a pretty poor contract (a useless player in Olesz who was signed for 2 more years at a cap hit of $3.125 mil per year, and a real salary of $4-4.25 mil per year). It made sense to take on Campbell's cap hit, because they got a very good player for nothing (actually less than nothing), and the 5 year term was reasonable.
The problem with Luongo is not the cap hit, but the term. He's 33 years old and has
10 YEARS left on his deal. His salary decreases near the end of his deal, so it could effectively be equivalent to more of a 7 year deal, but there have been plenty of rumblings about the new CBA punishing contracts like these (for example, AHL/retired years still count against the cap once a player is 40+). It's looking like anywhere from a 7 to a 10 year deal, and that is scary. Furthermore, the Panthers really needed a #1 dman when they dealt for Campbell, but do they really need a #1 goalie? Theodore played very well for them last year, and he's cheap and only signed for 1 more year. Long term they have Markstrom, who is widely regarded as the best goalie prospect in the world, and who was great in both the AHL and NHL last year.
Luongo, if anything, provides LESS value to the Panthers than Campbell did, and all they were willing to gave up for Campbell was Olesz.
As for the Nucks being in a better negotiating position than the Hawks, I'm not totally sure I buy that. They more or less have to trade Luongo, they've decided to go with Schneider for the future, having Luongo around would be a classic lockerroom cancer situation. Even last season, before the trade demands, the relationship between Luongo and the fans was pretty toxic, it'll only get worse if he stays on the team. The Nucks want to trade him, but he has a NTC, and so far he only seems willing to waive it to go to Florida. When you feel compelled to move a player, but he'll only go to one specific team and everyone knows that, you're in basically the worst negotiating position possible.