A Look into ProngerGate…

When I read Paul’s post about this whole thing, I was flabbergasted that all of a sudden there will be investigations into Hossa’s and Pronger’s contracts. Let’s take a look at the pieces that I believe are missing from the puzzle. First of all how many times in the last 10 years have veteran players gotten long term, front loaded contracts? What made the NHL want to just jump up now and investigate these two players? I can understand the economy is in a bad spot and everyone is pretty much crying wolf about the salary cap will drop. Yes folks that’s exactly what that is. The shape in which the economy must be for the salary cap to drop would be much worse than it is now. MUCH worse. With revenue systems and all of the fail safes that have been placed specifically for this kind of situation in the economy, I can almost guarantee you that the cap will not drop below what it was in 2006-2007. Regardless of that matter though, why would the NHL investigate contracts meant to keep people interested in the teams that the players signed with? I mean think about how many more season ticket holders wanted to re-up or finally break down and buy whole packages to see Marian Hossa score 40 goals in Chicago? Or perhaps how many people were excited the Flyers FINALLY brought back the toughness and aggressive play our defense hasn’t had in years? Now I can understand that it is looked at as “cheating the system of the salary cap” but if it is what’s best for the teams just let it go like you have for years now.

Now I remember when the Flyers acquired the rights to Kimmo Timonen and signed him to a 6 year deal that brought him to the age of 38 at the end of his contract. Now the deal was worth a total of $37.8 million. Timonen would get right around $7 million per year for the first 4 years of the deal, then dropped to $5 million in year 5 and $3million in year 6. This is a front loaded contract just like Chris Pronger signed correct? Granted Pronger will be 42 at the end of his contract but let’s face it the age of some players when they retire is 35 nowadays. Yet when the Flyers announced this signing the NHL didn’t investigate. Another huge name free agent the Flyers signed to a front loaded deal was Danny Briere. The blockbuster 8 year, $52 million dollar deal had him making $8 million the first 3 years, $7 million in years 4, 5, and 6, $3 million in year 7, and only $2 million in year 8. Oh guess what? No investigation. Now I get the fact that the last 2 years of Pronger’s extension drops from $4 million to $425k, but it’s still the same concept. So why not investigate all of the front loaded deals done in the last let’s just say 2 years since the economy started to fall? I guess that would be too much work and they would rather pick on the teams who need the players and the draft picks they have.Just for my own personal sanity in this situation of dumb, I wanted to put Lubomir Visnovsky’s contract terms in here. His deal, 5 years $27 million, had him make $7 million the first 2 years, $6 million in year 3, $5 million in year 4, and $3 million in year 5. That deal takes him to the age of 36, again like I said before players do retire early.

I could be completely on my own like I usually am on these subject but I’d like to think that I’m not the only one who feels inconsistency here. Like I said before I think that if you investigate one of these contracts you have to look at all of them just to show respect to the teams you are investigating. I’ll be the first to tell you that life isn’t fair but this is just outright ridiculous and will only get worse if Chicago and/or Philadelphia is to be charged with a fine and revoked of their draft picks. Hopefully soon enough the NHL will realize how silly these accusations are even if they were proved true. Seriously guys just let the teams use the loopholes if they are backed into a corner. Chicago and Philadelphia are two of the biggest up and coming hockey markets and even this negative publicity will only make them more in demand. Enjoy your night and prepare for riots! 😉