mccabe 15 goals and 24 assists for 39 points in 69 games and was florida's best d-man. thats right not bowmeester
finger had a career year points wise and only played 66 games and blocks shots like its nobodies business but his own,and was a -7 because it was a reflection of the team as a whole. so what are you talking about.
kubina is not over paid either on any team.
If any of these guys are over paid it is strictly a personal opinion.
After the Leafs drafted Schenn, I was kinda hoping to see a McCabe-Schenn duo. McCabe could've taken Schenn under his wing. Both played in the WHL, are about the same size, decent hitters, and McCabe isn't any worse defensively than say, Ian White.
McCabe was overpaid by about 1.5-1.75M ... same for Finger.
As it turns out, the Leafs would've been MUCH better off keeping McCabe last year instead of:
-signing Finger
-trading for Van Ryn
-trading a 4th round pick with McCabe for Van Ryn
-signing Frogren
-trading for another 4th round pick and taking a bunch of random TB salaries
-losing a 4th round pick for illegally signing Frogren
If McCabe and Kaberle had their contracts swapped for each other, McCabe is probably still a Leaf and Kaberle is the scapegoat.
Worst case scenario, even if he sucked again, the Leafs would've been closer to the Tavares sweepstakes ...
Oh well, McCabe's gone now. I hate to say it, but Cliff might've screwed us over ... hopefully Schenn will make up for it though.
I can only see a case for Finger being overpaid on this list. McCabe was rock solid in Florida, Kubina is arguably our best all around defenseman and Berg plays in Finland for a measly 1M.
If we're talking overpaid defenseman you start the list with Redden(6.5M), then add a little Rozsival(5M), if you want 7.1M of hardcore offence you could add some Campbell, and if you want a little bit of everything at 5.5M Hamrlik is your man. For your bottom pairing you could add overpaid sole defensive defenseman Finger (3.5M) and Mckee(4M) to round out the roster.
I'll never, ever, ever understand how the bad Leaf teams of 2006/07 and 2007/08 could spend more cap on their defense than most NHL teams and not have some overpaid defensemen.
McCabe wasn't overpaid. Berg, as much as I ragged on him, wasn't overpaid. If Kubina would put a year together like some of his spurts he wouldn't be overpaid, even so, he's only slightly IMO.
Finger is the only one of those d-men that was overpaid.
People don't seem to understand that the market dictates the worth of a player, not what you think he is worth. 3 lesser defensemen signed prior to McCabe for MORE money than McCabe got. You can argue his trade clause but not his dollars.
As someone else pointed out, have a peek during this year's UFA spree and see what you get for less than what Kubina makes. Geez some people were talking 6 million for Komisarek for the love of God.
Heck if we're going to talk teams with bad defense contracts how about Philly:
Hatcher, Derian 3.500
Rathje, Mike 3.500
Carle, Matt 3.438
Jones, Randy 2.750
Yep,
Kubina, UFA next summer.
Van Ryn, UFA next summer.
Stralman/White, RFA next summer.
Kaberle, UFA in 2 summers.
Schenn, RFA in 2 summers.
Finger, UFA in 3 summers.
That's why I advocated drafting Cowen this year. Kaberle won't be on a sweet year deal when we really compete and he'll ask for 6 million which I tell him to get lost.
