I've been perusing some of the other teams threads and came upon the notion that some fans (Colorado, Detroit) think that their big player contracts (Sakic, Lidstrom) will be able to "restructure" their contracts (in adddition to the 24% rollback) to get more money under the salary cap.
I know the new CBA says that players who are bought out can't be re-signed, but I didn't read anything about a player (say Sakic, for example) restructuring his contract (whether it be for deferred money counted against the cap in future years or reduced salary). Sakic's salary with the rollback will be roughly 6.6 million for next season.
Could he agree to restructure for only $5-5.5 million for next year, thereby freeing up betweem $1.1-1.6 million dollars under the cap?
And before anyone asks why Sakic would be willing to do this, the answer is that so they could re-sign some of their other top stars (Hejduk, Foote, Blake) thereby giving them a better chance to win next year.
If the answer isn't "absolutely not. no restructuring whatsoever." then it's a total joke.
Teams that handed out idiotic contracts with this lockout coming (*cough* belfour *cough*), should have to face the consequences.
I would be absolutley shocked if teams could restructure.
As for players signing for below market value in order to play for their "home-town" team, like everybody in Toronto seems to think Nash, Thornton, Lindros, Allison and every other player from Ontario will do, you have to realize that the union will not allow this to happen. The pressure to establish and maintain market value will be huge.
was watching the Score and they were discussing restructuring, apparently there will be no restructuring allowed. The owners and GMs were warned about the possibility of a work stoppage and to not sign players to long term contracts.
I've also heard that under no circumstances can deals be restructured in the new CBA.
In terms of Nolan, the problem I would have with him being bought out is that he'll be bought out for about 4.9 million and then they'll sign someone for 3 million to replace him. He's a pretty solid player, though last year he was sorely lacking, and IMO if he's given a shot at top line minutes he'll excel, provided he doesn't get injured.
The bigger concern for the Leafs is their goaltending as Belfour is quite old now, and is getting somewhat injury prone. After Belfour there really isn't much there, as Tellqvist has been relatively lack lustre so I'd concentrate on picking up a solid backup goalie like for example Sean Burke or Chris Osgood or even Jani Hurme.
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The bigger concern for the Leafs is their goaltending as Belfour is quite old now, and is getting somewhat injury prone. After Belfour there really isn't much there, as Tellqvist has been relatively lack lustre so I'd concentrate on picking up a solid backup goalie like for example Sean Burke or Chris Osgood or even Jani Hurme.
Why do people say Belfour is injury prone? He has been fine during his Leafs tenure.
Tellqvist is inexperienced, but has been better than lacklustre. Plus he's inexpensive.
On the whole I'm happy going with the two of them and spending our cap money elsewhere.
Teams that handed out idiotic contracts with this lockout coming (*cough* belfour *cough*), should have to face the consequences.
Let me clue you in regarding the Belfour signing. If the Leafs hadn't resigned him, he would now be property of the Colorado Avalanche. The Leafs and other teams were still under the impression (as of 7/1/04) that there could be a season (although the possibility of a lock-out was there).
If the Leafs don't re-sign Belfour for close to what at the time was market value, Colorado was waiting to sign him come midnight on 6/30/04 when he would have been an UFA. The reason for the contract was to keep him off the open market. Granted he would now be Colorado's problem, but had there been a season, the Leafs would have had to start Tellqvist in net at the beginning of the season.
The Leafs learned their lesson once, losing Cujo by not keeping him off the open market, and they weren't about to let a guy who won over 30 games for them each of the past two seasons to hit UFA again.
