It’s not a great time to be an NHL free agent, with most teams scurrying to get under a potential new salary cap and also trying to cut payrolls for fiscal reasons.
The league’s collective-bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15, and this offseason is the last in which teams will operate under an economic system the league says is untenable. When the free-agent signing period began July 1, only one unrestricted free agent changed teams in the first 24 hours, normally the busiest day of the year.
But things have picked up a bit since then, and middle-of-the-road players are finding a market for their services. It’s the top-end stars who’ve earned $5 million or more per season who all of a sudden can’t find work.
“It certainly appears that with what we call the ‘Tier I’ unrestricted guys there wasn’t that first big rush that we’ve seen in the past,” said Carolina Hurricanes president and GM Jim Rutherford.
As of late last week, future Detroit hall of famers Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan were still shopping for teams. So was St. Louis star Pavol Demitra, whose team relinquished his rights rather than continue paying him $6.5 million a season.
They watched on the sidelines while players of lesser skill were snatched up.
Octagon Hockey agent Brian Lawton noted three of his workman-like clients — veterans Matthew Barnaby, Sean O’Donnell and Chris Simon — found new teams willing to pay them from $1.6 million to $2 million a year. The league average last season was $1.8 million.
Lawton said he can sense that more players will see their salaries shrink than get raises this offseason, but not to an alarming extent.
“I think there will be some reduction,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll see a falling-off-the-cliff-type scenario.”
Still, not knowing what comes next has made it difficult for many NHL clubs to construct their rosters.
A handful are moving ahead with little apparent regard for a potential salary cap. The cash-rich Toronto Maple Leafs re-signed four players for a total of $22 million, representing more than two-thirds of the $31 million-per-team limit proposed by the league to the union a year ago.
Other clubs are making wholesale cuts that they often attribute to their own fiscal situation more than planning for a new collective-bargaining agreement. But some admit the $31 million figure is influencing their decisions.
“That’s certainly a guideline for us,” said Rutherford, who is shooting to get the Hurricanes payroll into the $30 million range, down from $39 million last season.
Clubs have only so much control of their finances, as the current free agency rules force them to match a player’s previous salary in order to retain his rights (despite predictions to the contrary, most NHL regulars did receive these “qualifying offers” from their clubs just prior to July 1). If a player is not satisfied with the offer he gets from his current team, he can file for salary arbitration. A third party then determines a player’s value, based on comparisons to other contracts around the league — deals signed during the last few years when salaries were on the rise.
For that reason, a record number of players are expected to file for arbitration when they become eligible on Thursday.
