I wonder why every year there are a few long year contracts...
All i know the most of them are terrible examples for their franchises and also for the players:
Islanders: Yashin and DiPietro
Flyers: Pronger and Bryzgalov
Rangers: Redden, Gomez and Drury
Vancouver: Luongo
New Jersey: Kovalchuk
Buffalo: Leino and Erhoff
Washington: Ovechkin and Backstrom
I donīt know one long contract the gm would make another time.... So why all of them make it again and again.
Sure a few good contracts exists:
Keith in Chicago or Zetterberg in Detroit, but most of them are not worth the money...
Also Carter and Richards are bad examples for both sides...
And pls donīt defend single players here, i donīt want to throw anyone under the bus (KOvalchuk, Bryz etc.) I only want to discuss if the risk is worth it....
Whatīs your opinion?
I wonder why every year there are a few long year contracts...
All i know the most of them are terrible examples for their franchises and also for the players:
Islanders: Yashin and DiPietro
Flyers: Pronger and Bryzgalov
Rangers: Redden, Gomez and Drury
Vancouver: Luongo
New Jersey: Kovalchuk
Buffalo: Leino and Erhoff
Washington: Ovechkin and Backstrom
I donīt know one long contract the gm would make another time.... So why all of them make it again and again.
Sure a few good contracts exists:
Keith in Chicago or Zetterberg in Detroit, but most of them are not worth the money...
Also Carter and Richards are bad examples for both sides...
And pls donīt defend single players here, i donīt want to throw anyone under the bus (KOvalchuk, Bryz etc.) I only want to discuss if the risk is worth it....
Whatīs your opinion?
Kovalchuk a bad contract? Pronger? Judging Bryz not even a season in??
There's not one team in the NHL who wouldn't take Kovalchuk at his current contract.
If you want a more recent example of a bad long term contract, look at Brad Richards.
Anyways, its pretty simple. GMs hand out long term contracts to attract players they think their team needs to succeed. The risk is usually worth it because most GMs know what their team needs.
Kovalchuk a bad contract? Pronger? Judging Bryz not even a season in??
There's not one team in the NHL who wouldn't take Kovalchuk at his current contract.
If you want a more recent example of a bad long term contract, look at Brad Richards.
Anyways, its pretty simple. GMs hand out long term contracts to attract players they think their team needs to succeed. The risk is usually worth it because most GMs know what their team needs.
Last year there wasn't one team that would.............
that's the one of the problems with long term contracts
It can be worth the risk, but only if you're smart about it. Obviously.
Not every great player is going to succeed under every system. If you strongly believe that you can create an environment where the player can continue to thrive, it's absolutely worth it.
If we try to think about all the variables on a long contract, i think its always a huge risk. The risk only rises for older players.
Other System (Carter)
Injuries (Gomez?)
Bad behaviour (Yashin)
Too much pressure in a hockey market City (Bryz + Luongo)
other linemates (Richards?)
other trainers
loosing his attitude because of the long contract (Richards?)
Kovalchuk a bad contract? Pronger? Judging Bryz not even a season in??
There's not one team in the NHL who wouldn't take Kovalchuk at his current contract.
If you want a more recent example of a bad long term contract, look at Brad Richards.
Anyways, its pretty simple. GMs hand out long term contracts to attract players they think their team needs to succeed. The risk is usually worth it because most GMs know what their team needs.
You chide him for judging Bryz not even a season in and you do the exact same thing with Richards. How is that possible?
Last year there wasn't one team that would.............
that's the one of the problems with long term contracts
Even though Kovalchuk had a bad year last year, it was still above average for most of the players in the NHL. His cap hit is only 6.667 mil. I can think of at least one player with a bigger cap hit that is not producing even 10th as much as him... Scott Gomez 7.357 mil cap hit...
The Kovalchuk contract may indeed go south at some point, but if you honestly think it's a bad deal already you're out to lunch. He had a rough year last year, but so did the entire Devils roster top to bottom, putting up the lowest scoring season since the lockout by a fair margin. It was systematic failure.
This year, with a competent coach, Kovalchuk has been a revelation, driving the play in the offensive zone and being remarkably responsible in the defensive one.
The problem is, it's simply too early to judge many of the really long contracts, I think.
You chide him for judging Bryz not even a season in and you do the exact same thing with Richards. How is that possible?
Mostly due to team bias
Besides, Bryz is too lovable.
But seriously, Bryzgalov is still in the prime of his career. He'll be alright long term. His skills are still all there, he's having a bad season.
Richards is past his prime. He's still pretty good but probably not even worth his cap hit these next few years where he will still be producing. That contract will look dreadful in 3 years.
Mostly due to team bias
Besides, Bryz is too lovable.
But seriously, Bryzgalov is still in the prime of his career. He'll be alright long term. His skills are still all there, he's having a bad season.
Richards is past his prime. He's still pretty good but probably not even worth his cap hit these next few years where he will still be producing. That contract will look dreadful in 3 years.
They are both 31. Richards is past his prime, while Bryz is in his? How is that possible?
Kovalchuk a bad contract? Pronger? Judging Bryz not even a season in??
There's not one team in the NHL who wouldn't take Kovalchuk at his current contract.
If you want a more recent example of a bad long term contract, look at Brad Richards.
Anyways, its pretty simple. GMs hand out long term contracts to attract players they think their team needs to succeed. The risk is usually worth it because most GMs know what their team needs.
Kovalchuk is amazing.
I don't know why people bring that up, it might suck for the Devils because of finical issue, but for rich teams its amazing, at the, Ily ends up playing only say 10 years, makes 90M, 9M per, but the team only has a 6.67 cap hit.
Oh ya in regards to Pronger's contract, possible the worst in the league.
Its a 35+ contact, and in years 4 and 5, Pronger only makes 550K, I doubt he players at the age of 40 for that amount of money. And if he retires the 4.9M cap hit stays no matter what since its a 35+ contract.
Only way to get out of it, is if Pronger never plays again, and instead of retiring, they just keep him on the LTIR for the rest of the contract.
If we try to think about all the variables on a long contract, i think its always a huge risk. The risk only rises for older players.
Other System (Carter)
Injuries (Gomez?)
Bad behaviour (Yashin)
Too much pressure in a hockey market City (Bryz + Luongo)
other linemates (Richards?)
other trainers
loosing his attitude because of the long contract (Richards?)
i donīt want to continue that.
Why take all the risks??
Gomez was not slowed down by injuries. In fact he missed very few games in the last years, only this year he's missed around 20 games. He began to suck way before this year.
They are both 31. Richards is past his prime, while Bryz is in his? How is that possible?
This isn't NHL12. You don't just hit your prime and leave your prime based on a number.
Seriously? You don't think players can have different primes? Not even a player and a goaltender?
Richards' skill is declining. Bryzgalov's isn't. If you don't see how that is possible (you can disagree with that assessment, thats fine) even though they are both the same age, you play too much video games.
Even though Kovalchuk had a bad year last year, it was still above average for most of the players in the NHL. His cap hit is only 6.667 mil. I can think of at least one player with a bigger cap hit that is not producing even 10th as much as him... Scott Gomez 7.357 mil cap hit...
Which would I rather have?
So... your argument is that Kovy has a good contract because it's better than Gomez's?
Luongo has been playing excellently for the Canucks. I can understand why some people may scoff at the length of the contract, but to compare him to Bryzgalov is ridiculous.
