So we rented The Blindside with Sandra Bullock at work tonight and something she says in it made me think... In the NFL, the quarterback is the most important player to any team. In the NFL, the quarterback is the highest paid player on just about any team. In the NHL, the goaltender is the most important player on any team, so why isn't he the highest paid player on any team?

Discuss...

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Is there as many Elite QB as there are Elite Goalies? Not alot of teams have the luxury of saying they have the center piece in hand.

Is there a salary cap system in the NFL?

IMO, hockey teams can somehow compensate for the missing Elite goalie with top notch Ds...

Quarterbacks are the ones responsible for practically ever W in the Win column.

Goalies are not.

Take away Manning from the Colts and they instantly go from the best to become the shittest team in the NFL.

Take away Miller and if the team plays together than they can still win.

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Take away Sanchez and the Jets would have sucked last year.

Put almost any goalie in for Detroit and watch them look like a star.

Not a lot though..., probably end up in 10th or 11th.

But yah, I still agree with you.

I disagree. I mean, I agree with what you said, but I disagree with your point. Sure, there are teams who can be competetive without a top goalie, but there are also NFL teams who can be competetive without a top QB. Baltimore did it for years. Won a superbowl with Tent Dilfer in 2001. Tampa Bay won it in 03 with Brad Johnson. And then there's the Steelers. They remind me of the Red Wings in this sense in that they're such a great organization and had such a good team in place built around defense and rushing and they brought in a good - but not great - quarterback and won two superbowls. Mind you, Roethlisberger is a better quarterback than Osgood is a goalie, but its pretty close.

Thats not really a fair statement. What if you replace him with Tom Brady or Drew Brees or Phillip Rivers or Aaron Rodgers?

This is completely untrue actually. Quite the opposite. Look at least year, Buffalo was sitting in a playoff position when Miller got hurt, they end up missing the playoffs without him. Just look at the records:

Miller: 34-18-6
Lalime: 5-13-3

The difference was drastic. Miller is healthy this year and they finish 3rd in the East.

I dunno, I've never counted
Seriously though, that depends on your definition of elite, I honestly think its pretty similar.

Actually there is, but I believe it is a soft cap, as opposed to a hard cap.

True, but I think pretty much the the same could be said in the NFL about an offensive line...

So I guess my point is, maybe GMs should start giving less dollars to guys like Eric Staal, Chris Drury, Vincent Lecavalier, Alex Kovalev, Scott Gomez, and Marian Gaborik given the extra money to the goalies instead?

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