Jackets GM to draw line in the sand with RFA players?

[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.

[Angelino]

Good post. There has to be some end to the inflationary prices for marginal players. Hopefully the league takes that into consideration as well.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Yeah nice post Chad, I can see it getting annoying with the whole "players never take pay cuts" type of mentality, even though they have clearly peaked and are on the downswing.

Having said that, should I withold my 4.5 mill, 3 year one way RFA offer sheet for Ruutu?

[Sylvanfan]

Well, RFA guys in the NHL are still getting good money, but not every player is hitting it rich after one good partial season. There are still too many CPHL players who's salary's are out of line with what a comparable NHL guy makes even with a cap convesion factor to try and equal out the dollars. If it's a good player showing upside than I'm okay with paying out some money. But when the player is coming off two straight bad years and an over priced contract....Why should that player get another lucrative contract?

There is a limited supply of money, and every player thinks he's going to get a raise...well for every CPHL player who gets a raise now...someone has to take a pay cut to balance that out. My intent is to make sure that those who merit a raise can still have one...but those who don't....will be paying for those who get one. We've already seen usefull NHL guys sent down to the AHL with no takers due to salary so players should really be valuing one way contacts in my opinion.

[JiriHrdina]

Players will take pay cuts but:
1. They won't take pay cuts where they are making half of what they were before. Don't ask fo rit.
2. If you are asking for a pay cut, make your case. Don't send us a one line email with a pay cut.

Remember, all these players can see what they could fetch on the free agent market and I suspect some would still make a nice penny.

The league has never said pay cuts aren't an option, just to date most GMs have failed to make a convincing argument or have gone for dramatic pay cuts.

For players that are dramatically overpaid, if you want to re-sign them- they are still likely going to be overpaid, but if you're lucky by not as much.

Ultimately player contracts should be considered when acquiring players.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Players will take pay cuts but:
1. They won't take pay cuts where they are making half of what they were before. Don't ask fo rit.
2. If you are asking for a pay cut, make your case. Don't send us a one line email with a pay cut.

Remember, all these players can see what they could fetch on the free agent market and I suspect some would still make a nice penny.

The league has never said pay cuts aren't an option, just to date most GMs have failed to make a convincing argument or have gone for dramatic pay cuts.

For players that are dramatically overpaid, if you want to re-sign them- they are still likely going to be overpaid, but if you're lucky by not as much.

Ultimately player contracts should be considered when acquiring players.

That sounds good to me, I am a newbie but it is good to see that the opportunity is there to get an overpaid player to take a bit of a paycut. I don't even think this will apply to me but still, this makes sense.

Essentially, don't be stupid with offers and provide adequate justification as to why said player deserves the contract.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Players will take pay cuts but:

Remember, all these players can see what they could fetch on the free agent market and I suspect some would still make a nice penny.

But this is sort of rubbish when compensation is involved. Sure a team might pay 3.5 million for Ruutu as a UFA. But when they have to pay him and give away players of similar value thats when teams no longer have any interest in him. I shopped him pretty heavily last year and I think I've maybe been offered picks....not even good ones, or 68 OV players for him and the other team ALWAYS wants money sent to help with salary. So to me....it's irrelevent when we talk of an overpaid player with compensation rights. A player like Bouwmeester is easily worth 8 million to someone on the open market, probably more. But when you have to give players plus pay his salary...that drags down his value. Works the same way for a guy like Ruutu. If anyone wants to offer him more than 3 million as a RFA be my guest you can have him, and I look forward to making compensation demands.

[JiriHrdina]

Problem is if we open the door to wide to paycuts we will be flooded with those offers.

Bottom line - go ahead ask for a pay cut. But you've got one chance. If you go for too much or don't justify it - your player won't be taking any cut.

Be smart. Be sensible. And don't waste our time. We've got a load of RFAs to deal with - your #1 rule should be not to low-ball.

If you do - your player's demands skyrocket.

[Sylvanfan]

Well I agree that any offer to lower a players rate of pay needs to be well backed by the GM making the offer, has to include vital data, comparable players and their salary etc... It can't just be a Tootoo sucks so he gets this offer. But by the same token...for evey dollar in raise thats given out another player loses money because of it, and in most cases it's going to be UFA players who pay that price. Simply put I'm not going to buy into the theory of every RFA gets a raise, or even gets to stay overpaid because they had a great contract before. RFA players will be paid what they're worth and if they think they're worth more than I do....they'll get to be UFA's who get paid less....or be held out of the leauge because I'm a gigantic Pr!ck doing it out of spite.