The Philadelphia Flyers have single-handedly altered the league’s salary landscape by RFA offersheeting a 21-year-old to make him the league’s highest-paid player at $18 million a year.
That’s great for them and all, as hoped-to-be-franchise centers like Leo Carlsson are painfully difficult to aquire, but hot damn did they just burn through the rest of the league’s growing salary cap space and leverage with high-end, early-career RFAs. This comes just a week after the Canadiens inked Ivan Demidov
to an eight-year deal at $9.15 million annually. The gap between those is staggering, and will delight every player agent who didn’t just sign their guy to something much, much lower.
It reminds me how media smartasses and agents frequently opine that the primary reason GMs don’t do offer sheets very often is because they’re afraid of pissing off fellow members of the boys’ club; in reality, the RFA system itself is the bigger barrier: you have to dramatically overpay to get a signing, which itself can simply be matched (so you’ve raised the salary bar for no gain), and the larger your poison pill the more you have to pay in draft pick compensation.
I do love this for both Pat Verbeek and Daniel Briere though.
Islanders News
- Isaiah George’s goal is to make the NHL roster. [Isles]
- Pete DeBoer discussed George, the departure of Anders Lee, being open to Matthew Schaefer on the right side, and other topics, including an implicit acceptance of Darche’s approach to the coming season’s clearly transitional roster. [Isles | Newsday | Post]
- Also from that DeBoer availability, on Rocky Thompson running the power play: “Despite his playing career and stats, he really thinks the game from an offensive point of view and has some brilliant ideas offensively.” [THN]
- Here are six, yes six possibilities for captains to succeed Anders Lee. [Newsday]
- Single-Malte Gustafsson completes his first development camp. [Isles]
- Fanpost! Bleuchz goes into an Eklund shift that bodes well. [LHH]
- Discussing the moves, non-moves, treading water and hilarity around the league. And that’s a wrap on the 10th season of Islanders Anxiety! [LHH]
- I missed this in all the signings (and wondered) but apparently David Rittich signed to be part of a three-person party in New Jersey. Wish the Isles had kept him, but I guess he’s likely to get more appearances there. [AATJ]
Elsewhere
- Should the Ducks match the Carlsson offer sheet? There’s a lot of ins, outs, what-have-yous. [Athletic]
- Friedman on how the Carlsson offer sheet changes things league-wide. (Also: an interesting note about how David Poile — then of the Capitals — said he regretted not matching the 1990 offer sheet for Scott Stevens, accepting five first-round picks instead, only for the guy to come back to the Patrick Division and lead the Devils to multiple Cups.) [Sportsnet]
- Bourne: Two sentences on every free agent signing above $1 million AAV. [Sportsnet]
- The Capitals totally won the offseason! [ESPN]
- Some of the top remaining free agents. (Patrick Kane to Buffalo?) [NHL]
- Stuart Skinner signs in Winnipeg. [NHL]
- Why Sergei Bobrovsky chose to subject himself to life being covered by Luke Fox Jukebox. [Sportsnet]
