Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Rämö only looks overpaid if you look at it in isolation from his situation in the KHL.
Rämö had the option of staying in the KHL and getting paid good money there. That drove up his price. The Flames had the option of not having him over or paying him good money themselves. Our management decided it was worth the shot, and we could afford it.
As long as the KHL is around, we're going to see more situations like this. Effectively, NHL teams have lost some of their negotiating power.
|
Exactly.
Another example is Babchuk - part of the reason he got $2.5m IMO is that if it were much less, he would have just gone home (I know, as it turns out, that wouldn't have been a bad thing)
The point is that the KHL provides somewhat of a salary floor for these players.
Freaking out about Ramo's salary is pointless. Now, if we were a cap team and had finite resources to add the final pieces, then we could discuss whether he was a good choice, but that's a different argument and not relevant to this team