Quote:
Originally Posted by BigTuna
But that is the market. Brooks Orpik got 5.5 the exact same day Dion was scheduled to be UFA.
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That is the
UFA market. Teams generally overpay in cash for big-name UFAs, because that is the only way to acquire a name player without giving up other assets. More often than not, they get themselves into cap trouble when other contracts come up for renewal.
I mean, it’s great for Brooks Orpik that he held the Caps to ransom for $5.5 million. But you can’t tell me they are getting value for their money. They’ll have a long, long time to regret that contract between now and 2019.
Contending teams don’t pay $7 million for a guy like Phaneuf. A losing team might, because he’s the best player they can get and they have to spend the money on something.
The guy is not good enough defensively to eat up the big minutes against top opposition. If you put him in that role, your defensive numbers go south – as the Leafs have shown. A winning team needs better all-round players than Phaneuf on the top pairing; and a winning team can’t afford $7 million in cap space for a #3 D.