Cheapskate Owners Fleece Fans on Both Ends

While I was away in Maine last week, the Buffalo Sabres announced an ingenious new ticket pricing plan. The Sabres call it the "Variable Pricing System." Here is how the team describes this new system:

Individual game tickets are based upon the Sabres innovative, Variable Pricing system, which is a newly created program where each game is designated by one of four different classifications (Gold, Silver, Bronze and Value). Each classification is determined by the opponent, time of the year, day of the week, rivalries and games against all-star players.

GOLD GAMES

Gold games will be those games that typically have the highest demand with regard to the opponent or the date of the game.

SILVER GAMES

Silver games will typically be weekend games (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) or games versus high demand opponents.

BRONZE GAMES

Bronze games will typically be mid-week games or against up-and-coming opponents.

VALUE GAMES

Values Games will be "family friendly" priced games that are offered at a deeply discounted rate for the season.

For the cheapest seats in the house, here is the price breakdown:

Gold: $68

Silver: $41

Bronze: $29

Value: $20

The Sabres host the Rangers and Flyers twice each. One game against each team is slotted as a "Gold" game and one game against each team is slotted as a "Silver" game.

So, what does this all mean? Well, it means that the Billionaire Owner of the Buffalo Sabres, Tom Golisano, didn't think it was worth his money to re-sign either Chris Drury or Daniel Briere, but he certainly thinks it's worth his fans' hard-earned money to watch them come back to Buffalo and play against their team. For the four games against the former Sabres stars, fans have to pay $218 as opposed to the regular price of $80 for games Golisano and his errand boys in the marketing department didn't deem worthy of extortion. It must feel great to pay so much extra for the right to watch these guys play for another team. Talk about pouring salt in the open wound.

This is what makes the small-market NHL owners so lovable. They whined and screamed for a lockout, and took over the wheel of the league and drove it straight into the iceberg. Now, they finally get the system they held the players and fans hostage to get, and they are complaining about the big-market teams spending too much money. But, that won't stop them from charging their own small-market fans an arm and a leg to see those big-spenders when they come to town. The best part of this is that other owners will catch onto this idea, and it will drive up revenues, which, in turn, will raise the salary cap. But, if you think owners like Golisano will take your money and use it to put a better product on the ice, don't hold your breath. They will be the ones trying to shut the league down again to lower salaries, and blaming the Rangers and Flyers for destroying the small markets, while they laugh all the way to the bank to deposit the extra money they made off those very same evil teams.

Report: Cullen Could be Headed Back to Carolina

According to a report by John Dellapina in the New York Daily News, Rangers' Center Matt Cullen could be heading back to the city to which he helped bring Lord Stanley's Cup in 2006. Dellapina writes:

Sather is shopping center Matt Cullen, with a trade back to the Carolina Hurricanes very much on the front burner. Should the Rangers shed Cullen's contract (three years left at $2.8million per), they'd trim nearly $3million from this season's cap hit.

That could simply provide flexibility for potential in-season moves. But it just as easily could be the first step in a plan to clear enough cap space to sign free-agent defenseman Sheldon Souray, whom the Devils and Islanders have pursued. Unloading defenseman Paul Mara's $3million salary undoubtedly would be another requirement.

As we have discussed here all week, the Rangers moving Cullen is not a surprise. Cullen is a terrific third-line center, with great speed. He does all the little things well, and he is certainly the kind of guy you often find on successful teams. However, he is the most logical forward on the roster to be moved to clear cap room. The Rangers really created this problem when they signed Cullen last summer. As I wrote above, he is a good third-line center, but the Rangers signed him to center the 2nd line and set up Brendan Shanahan, hence his $2.85 million cap number. After watching Cullen struggle on the second line on Broadway, the Rangers felt so strongly that Cullen was not the answer at that spot, that they broke up their top line late in the season and moved Martin Straka to center the second line. They then proceded to tie up $14 million in cap space on Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to center their top two lines. When you have that much invested in your top two centers, you simply can't also pay $3 million to your third center. Well, at least not in the salary cap era (we all remember the Rangers paying Bobby Holik $9 million a year to be their third center). So, while I like Cullen, and I wish the Rangers didn't have to move him, the reality is that when you add as much salary as the Rangers have this summer, sacrifices must be made elsewhere on the roster. And, this is a necessary sacrifice.

As for Souray, I continue to believe that, even if the Rangers deal Cullen and move Mara and his $3 million salary, it still won't be enough to get a Souray deal done, unless you can get him to take a one year deal for $4 million. If Souray was willing to take that kind of deal, he would have already been signed. I know his agent is very close to Glen Sather, but Souray is also close to Martin Brodeur, so if he wouldn't take that kind of deal from the Devils to play with Marty, why would he take it from the Rangers?

Lundqvist, Rangers Agree to One-Year Deal

Updated:

Various media outlets are reporting the deal is actually worth $4.25 million, not the $2.5-3 million that had been speculated. This undoubtedly complicates matters for the Rangers, and almost certainly guarantees that one or two players will have to be moved to clear out cap space. This also ends any, albeit remote, chance there was of the Rangers landing Souray.

From newyorkrangers.com:

New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that the club has agreed to terms with restricted free agent goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist, 25, appeared in 70 games with the Rangers this past season, posting a 37-22-8 record, along with a 2.34 goals against average and a .917 save percentage. Among league leaders, he ranked fourth in minutes played (4,108), tied for sixth in shutouts (five), ranked eighth in goals against average (2.34), tied for eighth in wins (37), and tied for ninth in save percentage (.917). His 37 wins marked the second-most victories in one season by a Ranger goaltender (Mike Richter, 42).

In his last 44 games of the 2006-07 regular season, Lundqvist posted a 1.85 goals against average and a .931 save percentage, and surrendered two goals or fewer 33 times over the span. He was named the NHL's "First Star" of the week twice in a three-week period in March and was selected as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy for the second consecutive season.

In the 2007 playoffs, Lundqvist posted a 6-4 record, along with a 2.07 goals against average and a .924 save percentage in 10 games.

The 6-1, 195-pounder has appeared in 123 career games with the Rangers, posting a 67-34-17 record, along with a 2.29 goals against average and a .919 save percentage. In postseason play, he has appeared in 13 career contests, posting a 6-7 record, along with a 2.58 goals against average and a .905 save percentage. In 2005-06, Lundqvist set the Rangers rookie record for wins in a season (30) and now has more wins (67) over his first two NHL seasons than any netminder in team history.

Prior to joining the NHL ranks, Lundqvist appeared in 144 career contests with the Frolunda Indians of the Swedish Elite League, posting a 2.02 goals against average. In 2004-05, he appeared in 44 games with Frolunda, posting a 33-8-3 record, along with a 1.79 goals against average and a .936 save percentage. He ranked among the Swedish Elite league goaltending leaders in several categories, including: wins (33, first), goals against average (1.79, first), save percentage (.936, first), shutouts (6, first) and minutes played (2641:51, second).

In the 2004-05 postseason, Lundqvist turned in a record of 12-2 with a 1.05 goals against average, a .962 save percentage and six shutouts. His efforts led Frolunda to the Swedish Elite League championship for the second time in three years. Following the postseason, he was named to the Swedish media all-star team for the third consecutive season, earned league MVP honors and was tabbed with Sweden's best player award.

Lundqvist captured his first Swedish Elite League championship with Frolunda in 2002-03, posting a 2.11 goals against average in 12 postseason contests en route to the title. While playing for Frolunda's junior team in 2001-02, he was named the League's Junior of the Year.

Internationally, Lundqvist has represented Sweden in several tournaments. Most recently, he captured a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy where he recorded a 5-1 record, along with a 2.33 goals against average and a .907 save percentage in six games. As a member of Team Sweden at the 2004 World Championships, he backstopped the club to a silver medal finish. In the tournament, he appeared in all eight contests, posting a 5-1-2 record, along with a 1.64 goals against average and a .925 save percentage.

Following the tournament, he was named to the Media All-Star team, as well as one of Sweden's top three players for the Championships. He also represented his country at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the 2005 World Championships. In addition, Lundqvist participated in the 2001 and 2002 World Junior Championships and the 2003 World Championships.

The Are, Sweden native was the Rangers seventh selection, 205th overall, in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.

Report: Lundqvist Deal Could Come Today

John Dellapina of the New York Daily News reports that with the Rangers finalizing the deal to keep Brendan Shanahan in New York for one more season, the Blueshirts immediate focus is on inking Franchise Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to a one-year deal to avoid salary arbitration. Dellapina reports that, much like Shanny, King Henrik is being flexible in negotiations with the Rangers to help the team navigate the salary cap. Thanks to that flexibility, the report states:

an announcement could come as early as this morning that Lundqvist has agreed to a one-year contract worth approximately $2.5 million. The deal is essentially a bridge to next season and beyond that will enable Lundqvist and the club to avoid their scheduled July 24 salary arbitration case while keeping the Rangers from having to unload players to get under this season's $50.3 million salary cap.

The 25-year-old goaltender will get his big-money, long-term deal soon enough. After Jan. 1, 2008, the Rangers can sign Lundqvist to a lucrative and lengthy extension for 2008-09 and beyond without affecting their '07-08 salary-cap situation. And they almost certainly will do so.


Allowing Lundqvist to hit the market next summer as a restricted free agent would be dangerous, as rival clubs might line up to make him whopping offers that would present the Rangers with this no-win option: match the offer sheet and crush themselves against the salary cap or let their franchise goaltender go for draft-pick compensation unlikely to ever produce a comparable player.

Signing Lundqvist to another short-term deal after this one also would be pointless as he could become an unrestricted free agent following the 2008-09 season.

It appears as though Sather is buying some time here to clear salary and also avoid the wounds that can be opened during salary arbitration. This is a smart move, and I hope they get this taken care of as soon as Dellapina suggests. While I liked the Gomez and Drury moves for a variety of reasons, the moves can't really be judged until we see what the true cost will be in terms of salary cap sacrifices. If players like Cullen and Mara are moved and replaced by kids like Staal and Dubinsky, then these big free agent singnings were well worth it. However, if these moves ever cost them the cap maneuverability to keep King Henrik on Broadway long term, then these moves would be a disaster. I don't see that happening. Both sides want to make this work, and I think they will be able to get a one-year deal done in short order and then a long-term deal done sometime next year.

Habs 07-08 Payroll

From what I gathered on the NHLPA website, The payroll will be of 37.975M for the players Montreal currently has under contract:

Defense (16.975M) :
Markov - 5.75M
Hamrlik - 5.5M
Bouillon - 1.875M
Dandenault - 1.750M
Komisarek - 1.5M
Streit - 0.6M

Offense (17.75M):
Koivu - 4.75M
Kovalev - 4.5M
Smolinski - 2M
Higgins - 1.5M
Plekanec - 1.4M
Begin - 1.225M
Kostopoulos - 0.9M
Latendresse - 0.85M
Murray - 0.625M

Goalies (3.25M) :
Huet - 2.75M
Halak - 0.5M

Gorges and Ryder who are still unsigned are according to BBeR going to receive around 4M combined. This leads to a total of approximately 42M.

According to http://www.nhlnumbers.com/, buying out Cullimore and Salmelainen will cost 0.89M towards our payroll. If this information is correct, our total is now of 43M.

The current payroll numbers provided by the NHLPA however does not take for account the fact that a team generally keeps 23 players.

If Gainey is done signing, expect three more players to be added to the team. Assuming they are receiving something between the league minimum of 0.45M and 1M each), this now brings our total to around 44M-47M, which is 3M to 6M below the 50.3M cap! Is Gainey leaving himself room to trade for a player once the season has begun? Better yet, will he be announcing a trade in the upcoming days? Only time will tell!

Corrections to this post were made on July 11th.

Gainey does it again...au revoir Samsonov!

COWABUNGA!

Bob Gainey has done it again, folks.

After ridding himself of Jose Theodore's seemingly unmovable contract last year, he clears the air and dumps Sergei Samsonov in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks.

''Considering we didn't have plans for Sergei Samsonov in our organization for next season, our options were either to buy out his contact or to trade him in order to allow us to save valuable cap room over the next two seasons,'' Bob Gainey told the media.

And Pierre McGuire finally got one right, he had recently told the Team 990 Montreal that the Canadiens and Blackhawks were close to making a deal, and hehe, here it is!

The Canadiens finally parted ways with their problematic Russian forward, 28-year old Sergei Samsonov today, sending him to Dave Tallon's Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for depth defenceman Jassen Cullimore and checking-line winger Tony Salmelainen.

Samsonov's $3,75 million 2007-2008 salary is off the Habs' books, and into Dave Tallon's; heading this way is defenceman Jassen Cullimore, who proved last season that he was no longer NHL material.

The 6 foot 5, 220-pound Cullimore had two goals and 12 assists in 118 games over the last two seasons with the Blackhawks, after winning a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2003-2004.
However, he and his $1,9 million salary will not be suiting up in Montreal any time soon.

The 34-year old veteran and ex-Hab [was traded to the Canucks in 1996 for Donald Brashear] will have his contract bought out by the Canadiens, and he'll need to look for greener pastures if he wants to continue playing hockey next season.

Salmelainen's situation will be "re-evaluated" over the next few weeks, but he'll likely battle for a roster spot come September.

He's still relatively young at age 25, and might still turn out to be a decent player one day.

Bob Gainey is a genius, he turned Samsonov's salary into a 600K cap hit over the next two seasons!

I'll have more on this later, right now, time to rejoice!

WE GOT SOMETHING FOR SAMSONOV! Who woulda thought of that?
WE GOT MORE THAN A PUCK BAG!

Cheers,

--BBR

Cap to up to 52 million?...Outdoor games encore?

There are a few interesting tidbits out there that may have gone unnoticed due to the Cup Final euphoria/Chris Pronger suspension and all.

Here's the latest news...

-Salary Cap to go up to $52 million

Larry Brooks reported recently on his blog, very briefly, that the NHL Salary Cap ceiling may be at $52 million for the upcoming season, this contradicts previous reports from media moguls like TSN, Sportsnet and the Score, that the cap will rise to an estimated $49 million.

All I have to say is, NHL, watch out.

I'm getting a bad feeling in my gut that the annual raise in the Salary Cap will bring us back to those old NHL days, and that NHL GM's will continue spending in a pricey way.

Why does the cap have to keep going up, why can't it just stay at say $49 million for a long while, and in 5 years or so, the NHL evaluates its finances and how it's improved and decides from there.

The people in the NHL's Board Room are making decisions that could potentially harm the game, especially if GM's go back to their freespending ways.

Thank God we are not in the MLB, that's all I have to say.

-Outdoor hockey game revisited?

ESPN claims inside NHL sources report that the NHL is indeed planning a follow-up to 2003's highly successful ''Heritage Classic'' which featured the Canadiens and the Oilers, and both of their vintage teams.

If your memory is foggy, guys like Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky faced off in the Old-Timers game, while Jose Theodore introduced the Canadiens tuque he wore on his head in the actual NHL game as they skated in sub-zero temperatures at a packed Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.

I would very much appreciate another outdoorer, even if it didn't include my Habs, would a Rangers vs. Islanders, or Detroit vs. Toronto game sound good?
Meh, the fact that it was two Canadian teams that faced each other made it more interesting than if it was some American team.

Then again, Original Six teams like the Rangers, Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Bruins or Blackhawks (as long as they got their old-timers) might make that an interesting experience.

-NHL to announce 2 expansion cities?

Bob McCown, during ''Primetime Sports'' on the Fan590 radio waves in Toronto 4 days ago, said that there's a rumour the NHL will announce two Western expansion towns, and that Las Vegas and Kansas City are two strong options, McCowan noted that Winnipeg was rejected and that these ''meetings'' have already taken place.

Hmmm, why not a place like Portland instead of Kansas City?
Geez, I just cringe at the thought of bringing hockey to a place like KC, I mean that's almost as bad as bringing a hockey team to Oklahoma!
And why, God tell me, was Winnipeg rejected while Kansas City, who can't even field a decent baseball team, is considered a strong option?

Just, please, Gary Bettman: let these two cities be legitimate hockey towns, and not KANSAS CITY or OKLAHOMA!

--BBR

Losing Drury and Briere Becoming More Likely Everyday

It hasn't been the glorious May that Buffalo Sabres fans envisioned in their wildest dreams this season. Coming off a stunning rout at the hands of the Ottawa Senators the Sabres are bracing themselves for some losses that could be felt for even longer. It is well documented that both co-captains, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, are unrestricted free agents. It is also common knowledge that the Sabres broke from their own team policy and negotiated with Drury within the season while not talking with Briere. Rumours abound of a split between the captains late in the season and during the playoffs. Now a combination of team policy, fiscal restraints and hard economics might conspire to strip Buffalo of its core leadership.

Last week Sabres Managing Partner Larry Quinn spoke on WGR550 about the fallout from the season and the upcoming off season. Most of the talk centered around the co-captains and the salary cap. Quinn pointed out that the cap is expected to rise to somewhere near $48-$49 million dollars. He further spoke of the Sabres intent to spend around 44 million on the cap. To go further, he said, would mean the Sabres would have to make the second round of the playoffs to maintain a positive cash flow. To be sure, Quinn said all of the right things about wanting the captains back and doing everything possible to keep the team core together.

Unfortunately, the writing between the lines speaks volumes. With the cap going up to 48 million the maximum individual player salary rises to approximately$9.5 million. Andrei Markov, a very good, but hardly a superstar defenseman just received an average of just under $6 million from the Montreal Canadiens. Teams have loads of money to spend and Drury and Briere both lend special talents sure to command top dollar.

Initially the thought was that $6.5 -$7 million each might be enough to keep the two captains around. Now the talk is starting to hover around the $8 million a year mark, a price the Sabres cannot afford for both players and, more than likely, will be unwilling to pay one. The rising costs also signal a reason as to why Ryan Smyth turned down a recent Islanders proposal for nearly $6 million a year, far more than he had ever been offered. Free agents are expecting a field day and it will be an expensive one.

Last year the Sabres went to the wall financially to keep the core of this team together. Unfortunately, the wall just became the Great Wall of China. There is always hope, but it is shaping up to be a long, cold summer in Buffalo.