Bleeding Talent to the KHL
Posted 08-04-2009 at 01:09 AM by JoshLind
Updated 08-15-2009 at 04:20 AM by JoshLind (Fixed hometown discount rate)
Updated 08-15-2009 at 04:20 AM by JoshLind (Fixed hometown discount rate)
Monday, August 3, 2009
Bleeding Talent to the KHL
From: The Lind Hockey File
2008 brought us the birth of Europe's top ranked hockey league - the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League), formed from the preexisting Russian Superleague. Almost immediately, KHL teams were able to lure over NHLers and get them signed to hefty contracts. The KHL and NHL have reached an agreement in principle, whereby each league honours the contracts of the other. However, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding what is becoming dubbed "KHL poaching" - the loss of quality NHL players to the KHL. While I don't want to get into the whole uproar, I would like to point out that the NHL has been getting some of it's best talent out of Russia for quite some time. Vladislav Tretiak, Viacheslav Fetisov, Sergei Makarov, Igor Larionov, Darius Kasparaitis, Vladimir Konstantinov, Alexander Mogilny, Pavel Bure, and Sergei Fedorov were all Russian-born players. No hockey fan can deny the presence of current Russian talent like Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin, Alex Kovalev, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov, and Evgeni Nabokov. Would the league be the same without them? I don't think so.
In the end, the onus is on the player to sign where he wants to play. The KHL cannot be blamed for trying to lure quality players to their league, especially when you consider the longstanding tradition of top-end Russian talent migrating to North America. For NHL fans like myself, however, it is impossible to ignore the loss of talent we are experiencing. Here is a condensed list of some NHLers who left to the KHL last summer:
Jaromir Jagr
Alexander Radulov
Marcel Hossa
Ladislav Nagy
Marcus Nilson
Chris Simon
Sergei Brylin
Andrei Zyuzin
Jozef Stumpel
Branko Radivojevic
Josef Vasicek
Karel Rachunek
Bryan Berard
Ray Emery
A future Hall of Famer, a few veterans who had skated in more than 500 NHL games, and a solid bunch of promising young players - all, with maybe one exception, who could have played in the NHL last season. Now take a look at who the NHL has lost so far this summer:
Sergei Fedorov
Viktor Kozlov
Sergei Zubov
Sandis Ozolinsh
Dmitri Kalinin
Richard Zednik
Radek Bonk
Ville Peltonen
Daniel Tjarnqvist
Joakim Lindstrom
Joe Motzko
Janis Sprukts
Martin Gerber
Mikael Tellqvist
Karri Ramo
Starting to feel a bit nervous? I don't blame you - over the last two years, these losses alone (and there have been more) amount to what could be a Stanley Cup contending team in the NHL. While some of them (Lindstrom, Motzko, Sprukts, Ramo) weren't getting the chances they deserved in the NHL, others are considerable losses. It now looks as if there won't be much the Detroit Red Wings or the NHL can do to stop Jiri Hudler from signing with the KHL. Next up may be Nikolai Zherdev, who is set to become a UFA within the next 24 hours if the New York Rangers decide not to sign him to the $3.9 million contract he was awarded in arbitration, and aren't able to trade him to a team who will. There has been some interest in Zherdev from the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him wind up in the KHL.
Without a doubt, many NHL teams would have loved to sign these players... So where is the problem? The huge contracts and lowered income taxes are surely not the only motivation for players to leave for the KHL - why can't NHL teams compete?
It is my opinion that the culprit lies in the salary cap. For one thing, teams are pressed so tightly against the cap ceiling that they can't afford to offer many high-priced, competitive contracts - even if they would be in the financial position to do so. Furthermore, the following season's salary cap is presently calculated using the current season's league revenues - which makes it an unknown, especially in tough economic times. The salary cap/floor was intended to achieve league parity, but so far it has done anything but that. As of this writing, the Chicago Blackhawks are the team with the highest payroll - just under $60 million. The Nashville Predators are the team with the lowest payroll, at two thirds of that - just over $40 million. Does that sound like parity?
But while it's easy to gripe about the cap, solutions are harder to come by. I have read around and done my best to come up with a few ideas for potential answers to the problem... which one do you like best?
1 - Change the salary cap by making it no longer based on league revenue, so that tough economic times and lowered ticket sales won't mean a diluted talent pool, which would further diminish revenues.
2 - Allow teams to go over the cap, but increase the percentage of revenues that team must share if they do. This would give big market teams the ability to offer big contracts, while even further helping the smaller market clubs.
3 - Get clubs out of small markets where revenue is low, unstable, and dependant on other franchises. This would help increase revenues league-wide, possibly circumventing some of the cap's negative risks.
4 - Introduce cap discounts to teams who sign homegrown players. In other words, if a team is renegotiating a contract with a player they originally drafted, a discount of somewhere between 20-40% could be applied to that player's cap hit. This option would let teams retain talent that they have developed, while still allowing them to be active on the free agent market.
So what do you think? Feel free to let me know which option you think is best, or suggest one of your own in the comments section. I like the 4th option most, as it puts more emphasis on solid drafting and organizational skills. Mind you, I think the 2nd option would be easiest to administer. Implementing both options could be a possibility as well...
- Josh Lind
The Lind Hockey File
Bleeding Talent to the KHL
From: The Lind Hockey File
2008 brought us the birth of Europe's top ranked hockey league - the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League), formed from the preexisting Russian Superleague. Almost immediately, KHL teams were able to lure over NHLers and get them signed to hefty contracts. The KHL and NHL have reached an agreement in principle, whereby each league honours the contracts of the other. However, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding what is becoming dubbed "KHL poaching" - the loss of quality NHL players to the KHL. While I don't want to get into the whole uproar, I would like to point out that the NHL has been getting some of it's best talent out of Russia for quite some time. Vladislav Tretiak, Viacheslav Fetisov, Sergei Makarov, Igor Larionov, Darius Kasparaitis, Vladimir Konstantinov, Alexander Mogilny, Pavel Bure, and Sergei Fedorov were all Russian-born players. No hockey fan can deny the presence of current Russian talent like Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin, Alex Kovalev, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov, and Evgeni Nabokov. Would the league be the same without them? I don't think so.
In the end, the onus is on the player to sign where he wants to play. The KHL cannot be blamed for trying to lure quality players to their league, especially when you consider the longstanding tradition of top-end Russian talent migrating to North America. For NHL fans like myself, however, it is impossible to ignore the loss of talent we are experiencing. Here is a condensed list of some NHLers who left to the KHL last summer:
Jaromir Jagr
Alexander Radulov
Marcel Hossa
Ladislav Nagy
Marcus Nilson
Chris Simon
Sergei Brylin
Andrei Zyuzin
Jozef Stumpel
Branko Radivojevic
Josef Vasicek
Karel Rachunek
Bryan Berard
Ray Emery
A future Hall of Famer, a few veterans who had skated in more than 500 NHL games, and a solid bunch of promising young players - all, with maybe one exception, who could have played in the NHL last season. Now take a look at who the NHL has lost so far this summer:
Sergei Fedorov
Viktor Kozlov
Sergei Zubov
Sandis Ozolinsh
Dmitri Kalinin
Richard Zednik
Radek Bonk
Ville Peltonen
Daniel Tjarnqvist
Joakim Lindstrom
Joe Motzko
Janis Sprukts
Martin Gerber
Mikael Tellqvist
Karri Ramo
Starting to feel a bit nervous? I don't blame you - over the last two years, these losses alone (and there have been more) amount to what could be a Stanley Cup contending team in the NHL. While some of them (Lindstrom, Motzko, Sprukts, Ramo) weren't getting the chances they deserved in the NHL, others are considerable losses. It now looks as if there won't be much the Detroit Red Wings or the NHL can do to stop Jiri Hudler from signing with the KHL. Next up may be Nikolai Zherdev, who is set to become a UFA within the next 24 hours if the New York Rangers decide not to sign him to the $3.9 million contract he was awarded in arbitration, and aren't able to trade him to a team who will. There has been some interest in Zherdev from the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him wind up in the KHL.
Without a doubt, many NHL teams would have loved to sign these players... So where is the problem? The huge contracts and lowered income taxes are surely not the only motivation for players to leave for the KHL - why can't NHL teams compete?
It is my opinion that the culprit lies in the salary cap. For one thing, teams are pressed so tightly against the cap ceiling that they can't afford to offer many high-priced, competitive contracts - even if they would be in the financial position to do so. Furthermore, the following season's salary cap is presently calculated using the current season's league revenues - which makes it an unknown, especially in tough economic times. The salary cap/floor was intended to achieve league parity, but so far it has done anything but that. As of this writing, the Chicago Blackhawks are the team with the highest payroll - just under $60 million. The Nashville Predators are the team with the lowest payroll, at two thirds of that - just over $40 million. Does that sound like parity?
But while it's easy to gripe about the cap, solutions are harder to come by. I have read around and done my best to come up with a few ideas for potential answers to the problem... which one do you like best?
1 - Change the salary cap by making it no longer based on league revenue, so that tough economic times and lowered ticket sales won't mean a diluted talent pool, which would further diminish revenues.
2 - Allow teams to go over the cap, but increase the percentage of revenues that team must share if they do. This would give big market teams the ability to offer big contracts, while even further helping the smaller market clubs.
3 - Get clubs out of small markets where revenue is low, unstable, and dependant on other franchises. This would help increase revenues league-wide, possibly circumventing some of the cap's negative risks.
4 - Introduce cap discounts to teams who sign homegrown players. In other words, if a team is renegotiating a contract with a player they originally drafted, a discount of somewhere between 20-40% could be applied to that player's cap hit. This option would let teams retain talent that they have developed, while still allowing them to be active on the free agent market.
So what do you think? Feel free to let me know which option you think is best, or suggest one of your own in the comments section. I like the 4th option most, as it puts more emphasis on solid drafting and organizational skills. Mind you, I think the 2nd option would be easiest to administer. Implementing both options could be a possibility as well...
- Josh Lind
The Lind Hockey File
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Great article!
While I agree with the hometown discount idea, I would think a discount of 30-40% max.
In your second suggestion where you say
What do you mean by helping the smaller markets? Is it because the bigger teams would be paying more to the league because they're over the cap?Quote:This would give big market teams the ability to offer big contracts, while even further helping the smaller market clubs.
If that's the case it means more $ for the smaller clubs, but they wouldn't be able to compete if the bigger teams are stacked.
Very good blog Josh, keep it up!
Posted 08-04-2009 at 01:03 PM by InsaneSkippy
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Hey IS,
Thanks for reading!
Yeah, that's what I meant for the hometown discount. I meant that the team would only have to suffer 60-80% of the player's contract - so a 20-40% discount would be right.
For the second suggestion, it would mean that teams going over the cap have to pay more to poorer teams -- while that may not increase parity in the current year, it would give smaller teams a few extra dollars for the following season.Posted 08-04-2009 at 02:18 PM by JoshLind
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Oh ok I see what you're saying then, I thought you meant they would be getting a 60-80% discount.
As for the second part, you can give a team all the money it needs, but the main way to get fans to stick around is to have a well-performing team.Posted 08-04-2009 at 02:38 PM by InsaneSkippy
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It was my bad actually, I'll have to edit the post. Thanks for pointing it out
Some teams, like Nashville, NYI, and Phoenix, can hardly afford to pay the cap floor, so I thought the second suggestion could allow teams in good markets to hire players that small market teams can't afford, while giving the smaller teams a few extra million the following season to spend on new contracts.Posted 08-04-2009 at 04:28 PM by JoshLind
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I like allowing teams to go over the cap, and then they just have to pay a little more revenue and taxes based on how much they go over. This however could lead to the Rangers jumping on anyone they see fit, like before.
All in all though dedication should be rewarded, and the fourth and last option seems like the best solution. If a player sticks with his team I like the idea of giving the team a discount against the cap on his contract.
I can't agree with teams relocating though cause I personally know how it feels like. I was scared shitless that we were going to lose the Senators to Portland until Eugene stepped in. Its not fair to the fans. I will say though had Ottawa moved, Portland would have been my favorite team
Based on the list of players that jumped to Europe this year. We really didn't lose too much to the K this year, Fedorov, Kozlov, Zubov, Zednik and Gerber. The rest of that list IMO are a bunch of has beens or players that aren't cut out to play NHL hockey. I don't think its a problem, Its just a way of telling GM's to shit or get off the pot. If they are not going to show dedication to a player the K will come calling. The NHL won't really miss those guys, we did fine without Jagr last year so unless Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin or any Star like them decide to make the jump to the K, meh... its part of the businessPosted 08-05-2009 at 03:56 AM by AK27ReLoaded
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There are some very consistent ties between the last names of the players who have left, they are almost all europeans who clearly want to play closer to home, or north americans whose skill wasn't as up to par as the NHL demanded.
I had no idea Marcel Hossa had left.. must have missed that one.Posted 08-13-2009 at 03:09 PM by Corbechev
