Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteMoss
I would much rather spend $12 million on sure things like Kane or Toews than splitting the $12 million on guys like Niskanen and Ott.
Pittsburgh problem is they haven't drafted an NHL forward since 2007 (Beau Bennett may be an exception). If you go six drafts with not a single forward contributing you are going to have issues) not that they pay Malkin and Crosby too much.
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In a world where there was no cap, absolutely. But the cap is not guaranteed to continue to increase and even with great drafting, eventually you have to pay the good young players that break your lineup. And if you have two guys making 12 mil, how can you not be givin 8+ to the guys who end up replacing Sharp and Hossa? Lets say Saad becomes Sharp 2.0, a guy who is arguably very close to if not as important to the Hawks success as the other two, and now you have to fit him under the cap. What if Leddy explodes into a top pairing guy, what is he worth now?
I'm not saying that Kane and Toews aren't necessarily worth that dough ( I personally don't think anyone on planet Earth deos enough to earn that type of dough, but thats a much different debate), but they have to take into account what they want to be. Highly paid players on a Cup contender? Or the leagues highest paid players dragging a team of plugs to mediocre success? Sure, Pitts drafting hasn't been great, but that doesn't mean that if they HAD young players come in and earn themselves $6-10 contracts, they would be priced out of Pitt because of how much they pay their top guys (although at this point Sid is an absolute steal, but I don't think there's doubt it would have hampered them in the past with signing free agents and trades, which has been a big part of the Hawks team building as well).
And again, my point is not that Kane and Toews aren't good enough for that dough, it's that sharing the wealth has to be a factor if they want the team to remain competitive long-term. Obviously this isn't Kane or Toews actually negotiating and their agents are trying to get them the most they can, but in a team game with a limit on spending you just can't have 1/3 of your funds tied up in two guys. These aren't movie stars who can carry a film to finiancial success just by having their face on the poster, as good as Toews and Kane are, they won't win on their own. The supporting cast is arguably just as important as your star offensive players (see: Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll, Mike Richards, etc..). Can you have guys like that on your team (each probably worth 5+ on the open market), when you have 1/3 of your dough in two guys?
You look at the Cup winning teams of each year and there are players playing above their paygrade, including the stars.