[Sylvanfan]

Jackets GM Sylvanfan is an angry man these days and vows to be on the war path. It appears the first victims of his rage will be some of the Jackets RFA players. Rumour has it e-mails have been circulated to Tuomo Ruutu, Rene Bourque, and Jordan Tootoo that essentially are telling these players to expect to take pay cuts next year, or that there will be no raises whatsoever.

Ruutu is an over rated 25 year old Fin who had a beauty of a deal on his last contract. Paid for potential that never was fulfilled he received a nice lush 3.5 million dollar annual salary. But three years later his NHL clone has produced seasons of 5, 38, and 31 points and never been able to play more than 76 games. With a CPHL salary of 3.5 million annually, it makes him a very expensive player. Rumour has it that GM Syl is intent on a pay cut of at least 1 million dollars annually until Ruutu proves that the upside he claims to have actually does exist. Apparently the GM is willing to sit him out an entire year to do so, and doesn't think any of his colleagues value Ruutu as being a player worth more than Syl's 2.5 price tag if he was available on the open market let alone with compensation rights.

Tootoo is also 25 years old and makes half of what Ruutu does. But according to GM Syl....he isn't half as good as Ruutu, and isn't even worth half as much as he's willing to pay Ruutu. Rumours suggest that Tootoo will receive a take it or leave it offer that will see him either accept a 700k annual pay cut, or be cast into the UFA market where GM Syl feels his price would be 800k at most. According to source the email sent to Tootoo described him as a highly disliked skilless plug who should be happy to even receive the rumoured offer.

Fred Sjostrom has been advised that he'll be fortunate to make what he did last year as the Jackets think his price should be closer to 1 million per year than his current 1.31. The only way he'll make more than what the Jackets offer is if he gets a RFA offer. Otherwise he will be held out for the entire season. Apparently it's been reasoned that in the old RFA system 2 first round picks would be required as compensation for Sjostrom if he was qualfied at his current salary and as much as Syl hates the draft....he'd happily dump Sjostrom for one first round pick if he could find a taker.

The news is not as bad for Rene Bourque who is 26. He was told that he'd be wise to avoid taking on any new lavish lifestyle choices as his salary will not be increasing at a rate higher than CPHL inflation. With last years 67 million cap up to 70 this year it represents an increase of 4.4% over last summer. So Bourque has been told that 1.05 million is better than inflation.

Even Doug Murray didn't get the news he had hoped for. He's been told there will be more money and a one way contract coming his way, but it will be a one year deal and he'll be testing free agent waters next year. Murray had hoped to capitalize on having a potential grid value of 3.5 per year and being able to blend that 7 million over the next two years with next years salary to land a substantial raise from the 700k he made last year. But it appears that Murray will have to accpet a one year deal and than see how much the UFA market values him the following year. If he dares challenge the Jackets GM....he too will be denied employment in the CPHL next season unless another GM dares make an offer for his services.

Sources suggest the GM is basing these thoughts on the CPHL's new UFA process where players essentially are forced to accept the best offer they are given with zero negotiating. GM Syl feels that with high grid rates to retain top players that UFA players have received a lot less money than they did in the past when UFA's were in short supply since top players routinely left heaps of cash on the table due to poor representation. If good UFA players don't get to negotiate....than overpaid RFA players will not be getting the same courtesy from this GM. It could get pretty ugly....in Columbus as hold outs could be on the horizon.