Kipper is SIGNEDThis isn't much of a scoop, you can read about it here, here, here, here, here, and here. Maybe there too.
Point being, Miikka Kiprusoff (damn that is hard to spell) is a Calgary Flame for the foreseeable future. I haven't parsed the details of the contract but it is front weighted and roughly in the area of 5.8 million per year which is excellent compared to Luongo's 6.75M/yr. There is a sense of excitement in Calgary as the core of the team has been solidified, Iggy, Regs and the Kipper. But the bad news is Phaneuf, the Juice and Lanks are heading into RFA/UFA territory at the end of this season. Phaneuf is especially concerning given the Edmonton Oiler's Offer sheet tactics of late. Not to mention the guy is playing well and deserves a huge raise. While signing the kipper at 5.8M is a wicked deal, I doubt Sutter got any sleep given what lies ahead. As a general note this would be a really good year for the Flames to try and win the cup while they have such a stellar roster. I'm just saying . . .
UPDATE:
Sharp Eyed Shaun points to this blasphemous article: Not Everyone Happy with the Kipper Deal.
Like any article produced in the center of the universe (toronto) it's a bit short on fact, references, sources or any content worth digesting. Anyhow, I will hit the high points:
- Leland Irving is apparently not happy because he will have to 'beat out' Kipper for a spot on the team. Of course, no one in TO called Leyland, they just assume he's upset. By the way HE'S 19! He's the future! Do the bloody math, goalies are good from 28-35 . . . .
- If we can trust this POS article (which sources NOTHING) we can assume that Kipper's deal is front loaded leaving plenty of cap room towards the end of his deal.
- You know who else probably isn't happy about this deal? Brian Burke. Because he was most certainly screwed out of getting a goalie . . . oh wait, he doesn't give a shit.
- Jeremy Roenick was upset by this deal because it further highlights his complete lack of value to any NHL team.
9 comments:
good post. i think kipper at 5.8/yr is an incredible deal. the fact that luongo makes almost a million more (i'm pretty sure that's right) is telling, especially since they're a wash in terms of talent AND kipper has achieved more than luongo in the last couple years (yes, i know bongo was in the hockey deathbed known as florida 'til recently). what it tells, is that sutter is assembling a core committed to winning and icing a competitive team, and that *wants* to be here (take notes k-lown). great, great day for flames fans.
I could be mistaken Rob, but I believe that there is no more cap room later in the contract. Your cap hit is averaged out over all of the years, so it's always 5.8 million. Kipper will get paid way more than that that in the early years.
I think the advantages work like this - Kipper gets huge money right now, while he's undoubtedly an allstar. Like $8M money. This is good for him. However the cap hit is only $5.8 M so we have a little for cash for Phaneuf. This is good for the team.
Later in the contract, Kipper might want to retire. Since he got the money early on, he's not losing out on a lot of money. I'm not positive, but I think that would mean his salary would come off the books. So we'd have $5.8 M in cap space to sign whoever if he does retire.
I think the only losing scenario is if he sucks in 6 years but is still playing for us, eating up $5.8M in cap room. But we got an advantage early on in the contract, so you take your lumps.
he gets 6.7 million for the first 5 years and then 1.5 for the last. all six years are a cap hit of 5.8, unless he retires in the last which i dunno what the fuck happens then. with luongo a million more and brodeur at 5.2 or something, that looks about right.
not sure how you flames fans feel about all this really. the team is ridiculously top heavy with a few players taking up the majority of the cap.
Thanks for the scoop Andrew.
As a Flames fan, I'm ecstatic. We have now signed 3 essential, top-tier talents, each taking "hometown" discounts. There is no doubt that Iginla, Kipprusoff and Regher could all make significantly more on the open market. This will allows us to secure even more, i.e. Phaneuf.
I think the Oilers are the perfect example of a team that spreads the money around and lot and gets almost nothing for it. And you can't deny they would have been in the same situation if Buffalo didn't match Vanek's offer.
Oilers even have a higher salary than the Flames right now, which is shameful if you look at it from a return on investment perspective. I'd take Regher at 4M over Souray at 5.4M any day.
if i was a flames fan, i'd be a little scared they're gonna turn into another tampa bay lightning, with a huge gap between the "stars" and the rest of the team. phaneuf's gonna get around 4.5M i would think, then what. there's no space left for your 3-4M players, which i guess your langkows and huselius' are in, and at least one of those players are gone after this season for sure. so unless your prospects and rookies start stepping up, and by the looks of it dustin boyd isn't exactly jesus, there's no depth at all, and no room to sign anyone else.
i'm not the biggest fan of lowe, but i really think he knows what he's doing. you can't look at the oilers with a return on investment perspective at this stage, cause although they're gonna deny it, they're truly in a rebuilding phase. every move in the offseason was done with the future in mind. people will look at penner and think with his 4.25M he's way overpriced, but this season no one even expects him to earn his worth. it's 2 or 3 years from now when he's actually nearing the peak of his career when his salary will look like a bargain. and the whole vanek thing is a moot point cause lowe knew buffalo was gonna match.
btw looks like i was way off with those kiprusoff contract details though. i just read it's like 8M next year and it just progresses downwards each year
here's what bugs me:
1. the apparent no-movement clause. these things seem to make guys too comfy, often reflected in performance (see: mccabe)
2. phaneuf is G-O-N-E gone, and in my mind, dion is proably more valuable in the long run than kipps... you think, at 22, he's gonna take a "home town discount" ??? no effin' way. he'll reject any offer sutter gives him, hoping that the ridiculously high offer sheet comes from a town like NY or LA, and not columbus. cause, look at it: dion seems to be a spotlight kinda guy....
3. if you're gonna write an article on who's gonna be unhappy about the signing (for the CBC, no less), maybe try spelling the guy's name right. LELAND irving.... not LEYLAND irving. it's as simple as googling "everett silvertips." god, that annoys me from a professional writer...
feeling annoyed and bitter,
WI
how can anyone say lowe knows what he's doing? 50 million to vanek, at a cap-hit of $7.2 million/year. that's more than iginla money! lowe is just lucky that darcy regier was more desperate to save face than him. and how can you say that penner is a good deal? projecting his worth 2-3 years from now? come on... that's absurd! the only thing lowe seems to have done well on this year is scouting, as gagner and cogliano look great.
sutter knows what he's doing. the tampa situation is not analagous at all. they have all their money in 2 centres and a winger. that's why they're struggling. we would have ours in one of the top-3 forwards, two shut-down defenseman (one of whom is a #2 on any team in the league), and a top-3 goalie. with that core, you're competitive. keeping phaneuf and developing a '2nd line' around langkow and/or huselius is a competitive team for years. it's called balance.
further, i don't know that phaneuf is necessarily gone. something has to give though, and i think it'll be tanguay. his 5.25/year cap hit could be valuable to another team. moving him would possibly allow keeping langkow &/or huselius and phaneuf. the trick is going to be whether our farm guys can step in (as they have for, say, buffalo).
you could, in theory, have langkow/lombardi/boyd/conroy or yelle down the middle, and that'd be damn good... *if* our farmhands meet their potential. if anything could be our downfall, this could be it. flames drafting has more or less been awful in recent history (save phaneuf) and it could be what makes the difference between us and other top-tier teams down the road.
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