[Sylvanfan]

I've long thought about posting this thread myself...Canadian teams are less competitive than they've every been despite cost certainty and being economically viable.

I personally think that it comes down to owners wanting to make profits. If the teams make moves and sell short term hope it will result in higher ticket sales and keeping the bottom line looking good. For American markets where there aren't as many hard core fans who track every move or media coverage, teams may focus more on finding ways to get on ice results to get the attention of it's market. So perhaps owners are prodding managers too much to improve the team now, or create hype, rather than let them focus on just building the most competitive team. I don't know how well Calgary would accept a quiet GM like Poile taking 6 years to set up a competitive franchise as an example. Getting in a guy like Burke who's loud and wants attention and screaming that he'll get it done faster may keep more attention on the team.

The other factor right now is that the good free agents are not signing in Canada. The market price for players in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, or the New York Rangers is not the same as it is in Edmonton or Calgary. The NHLPA might as well no longer exist as players in large seem to be doing what they want and not taking the best pay cheque in a lot of cases. Whereas under Goodenow every player was more or less directly to get paid as much as you can because it will set the market for the other guys. I'm firmly of the opinion now that the Canadian teams were almost in a better situation pre lockout where they had a lot more player control until the guys were 31 years old and market value for the players in certain age groups seemed to have more consistency.