Next CBA May Not Bode Well to Keep Read for Long Haul
Whenever there is a new Collective Bargaining Agreement put in place, NHL teams are going to face some tough decisions about which players they can lock up in long-term contracts. The Flyers will not be able to keep everyone they would otherwise want to retain if it were strictly a hockey decision.
Under the CBA created in 2005, the Flyers were usually able to find ways to re-sign the majority of the players they wanted to keep. One exception was R.J. Umberger, whom the Flyers were forced for cap management reasons to trade to Columbus after the 2007-08 season. Other exceptions included losing Ville Leino (2011) and Matt Carle (2012) to unrestricted free agency when they were offered huge raises elsewhere.
In the near future, there is a strong chance the Flyers will end up in a similar cap management versus roster-building dilemma with
Matt Read to the one that made it unfeasible to sign Umberger, whom the team very much wanted to keep.
Assuming he remains healthy, Read is well on his way to getting a nice payday when his current contract expires. Read, who was signed out of Bemidji State University in 2011, can become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2014 (if there is a shortened NHL season played this year). He is eligible for a preemptive extension next summer.
Read was a tremendous bargain for the Flyers as a 25-year-old rookie last season. For a cap hit of $900,000 and a real-dollar salary of $800,000, the Flyers got a versatile two-way player who played at all three forward positions as needed, averaged 17:06 of ice time while contributing on both ends of special teams, scored 24 goals and 47 points, and went 4-for-6 in shootout attempts.
There is every reason to believe that Read can -- and will -- do at least as well for the Flyers upon the resumption of the NHL as he did in his first season. Although he did not place as a Calder Trophy finalist last year (amidst a very good, and younger array of candidates), Read's ability is no longer a well-kept secret. Teams around the NHL are well aware of his value.
Read's status as a low-cost, high-yield bargain will last only until the end of his current contract. Keep in mind that a drop to a 50-50 revenue split in the next CBA will significantly lower the cap ceiling and any decrease in revenues caused by the lockout will lower the ceiling further. Then consider the following:
* Flyers franchise player
Claude Giroux will be eligible for a contract extension in the summer of 2013. He will otherwise become a restricted free agent in 2014, one season away from attaining unrestricted free agent status.
* The entry-level contracts of both
Brayden Schenn and
Sean Couturier will expire in 2014. Both players will be in line for a multi-year extensions.
* Unless the remaining real-dollar salaries of currently signed players would be recalculated for purposes of helping teams ease the transition to a new cap,
Danny Briere will carry a cap hit of $6.5 million until the end of the 2014-15 season. He has a no-movement clause in his contract.
*
Scott Hartnell signed a six-year contract extension this summer. The deal kicks in for the 2013-14 season at a $4.75 million cap hit.
*
Wayne Simmonds signed a six-year contract extension that kicks in for the 2013-14 season. The deal will increase his cap hit from $1.75 million to $3.97 million.
* In the summer of 2014,
Jakub Voracek will have two seasons remaining on the new four-year contract he signed this summer as a restricted free agent. His cap hit will be $4.25 million.
* The Flyers' most pressing needs are on defense, not up front.
Chris Pronger is unlikely to ever play again.
Kimmo Timonen is in the twilight of his NHL career and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2013. Carle is now a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. That's why Philly took it's best shot at acquiring Shea Weber this past summer. Once the Nashville Predators matched the Flyers' offer sheet, the Flyers were back at square one in addressing the top end of their blueline.
Get the picture? The Flyers are going to be very hard-pressed to offer Matt Read a fair-value contract extension when he is eligible for a raise. The good news for the Flyers is that the decision doesn't have to be made right away, and he could be especially valuable at his bargain price for the duration of his existing deal.
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NHLers in Europe: The Realities vs. the Myths
Ottawa Senators forward Kyle Turris is taking a lot of heat -- understandably so -- for comments he made to the Globe & Mail about his experiences playing for Kärpät Oulu in Finland's SM-liiga during the lockout. The story, which was pulled from the web site and subsequently
re-posted with a correction of a factual error (Turris has already returned from Finland, whereas the original story said he was still playing there).
Turris has subsequently issued a damage-control
public statement through Kärpät's official site. In it, he basically claimed the Globe & Mail article author, Jordan Winnett, cherry-picked negative comments that made Turris seem like a spoiled brat who was ungrateful to the team for the opportunity to play during the lockout, unwilling to cope with fewer creature comforts and who came to the country without even knowing anything about the team or researching the realities of day-to-day life in the north of Finland.
I don't know Turris, and have never interviewed him. Back in his 2007 draft year, I did talk to three scouting contacts about him while doing preparatory research for Draft coverage. It was said at the time that apart from his hockey skills, he was a bright, respectful kid with strong character.
I will say that I think Turris has made some questionable career choices. At the time of the 2007 draft, it was repeatedly said that he had opted to play BCHL hockey instead of major junior because he wanted to play collegiate hockey while pursuing an education. But after he got drafted, he stayed less than one year at the University of Wisconsin before turning pro to join the Phoenix Coyotes.
From a monetary standpoint, I understood it. Turris was a high-end first round pick despite his lack of major junior experience, and the Coyotes were offering him an immediate NHL spot and NHL money. So he went for it. But it was a bad idea from a hockey development standpoint to try to make such a huge jump in caliber of competition so soon.
It was not surprising in the least when Turris struggled in Phoenix and wound up needing AHL seasoning to be ready for the NHL. But it was incredibly puzzling when he opted to hold out in 2011 -- without having shown more than flashes of productivity at the NHL level. He basically forced the situation that ended up in his trade to Ottawa.
As the situation in Phoenix unraveled, I really started to wonder a bit about Turris. Was he receiving bad advice? Or was the problem actually his own impetuousness and lack of maturity in his early 20s? If it was the latter, he'd hardly be different than most people that age. Even so, it would fair to wonder if the instant prestige and money that go along with being an NHL lottery pick had gone to his head just a little bit.
I really didn't think much of it one way or the other when Turris signed with Kärpät during the lockout. It seemed like a solid addition for Oulu, and an opportunity for Turris to stay in hockey shape while playing for a winning team in a decent league. Beyond that, I didn't give it another thought.
Kärpät officials have said that Turris didn't cause any problems while he was there -- he didn't voice any complaints and he produced well (19 points in 21 games) on the ice. The player had nice things to say about the team and the league in an
interview with the Ottawa Sun.
But Turris was either hiding his real feelings until he talked to the Globe & Mail writer or else the quotes were made up (which I doubt). There is no middle ground, because there is no misinterpreting the series of disparaging comments attributed to Turris about how bored he was in Oulu, how much he hated the food, how much he disliked the travel from the north to other parts of the country and how he felt uncomfortable dealing with the language barrier while living in a foreign country.
I will say this: Folks who have been involved in European hockey for years have told me privately that signing NHL players -- especially North Americans -- is a bit of a crapshoot for everyone involved. Sometimes there is a good fit between the player and a particular team, league or country. Other times, it's a bad fit for hockey and/or off-ice reasons.
Some European teams had bad experiences with NHLers during the 2004-05 lockout, and that figured into the decision made by Elitserien to exclude locked-out NHLers who would not commit for the full season.
Some guys go over to Europe with the right attitude. They're eager to be part of the team on and off the ice, willing to adapt their games to the bigger ice, curious to learn about the culture and to bond with their new teammates.
Matt Read is a perfect example of this type of player. He went over to play for Södertälje SK -- a team that plays in minor league Allsvenskan -- on the recommendation of former college teammate and current SSK player Emil Billberg.
Read knew things would be different than in the NHL and he went over ready to work, ready to do whatever was asked, ready to be a good teammate and willing to treat living and traveling around Sweden with a minor league team as a positive learning experience.
Read wanted no star treatment. Although he most certainly noticed that there were sacrifices to make from an NHL lifestyle, he took it all stride. Turris is far from the only North American player who learns things are different when playing and living overseas. But most guys are professional are gracious enough to keep any minor annoyances and inconveniences to themselves, both during and after the face.
It should also be noted of Read that he played for SSK for salary compensation that didn't even cover all of his own expenses. He did it because he wanted to play competitive hockey of some type, wanted a chance to reunite for awhile with a close friend and wanted to make the best of the lockout by getting a different sort of life experience. Making money was never the focus.
The end result for Read was a mutually positive experience for everyone involved. He played very well on the ice, and the once struggling team turned around dramatically. On and off the ice, he earned the admiration of his teammates, coaches and SSK management. Read also became a huge fan favorite among the SSK fans.
Unfortunately, not every locked-out player has nearly as good of an experience as Read or Danny Briere with their European teams.
Sometimes the hockey fit isn't right. Wayne Simmonds was not really a good fit for the Czech league's style of play (one of the least physical leagues in the world), and was placed on a team that has been losing all season and surrounded by turmoil. He did well statistically, but it was just not the right situation for him.
Apart from hockey differences, there are even steeper cultural barriers for North American players living and working in the former eastern bloc countries than the ones in western and norther Europe. That, more so than the racial taunting incident in his second road game, was something that Simmonds was not quite prepared to deal with, and learned the hard way.
This does not apply to Simmonds whatsoever, but there is a subset of NHLers who go over to Europe with a bad attitude from the outset. These players take the viewpoint that they are just passing through and they don't really need to do much more than show up on time for practice and the games.
This group of players resist trying to adapt their games to the big rink, even though it's the reality of the system their new team plays. Beyond that, a smaller subset expect to be catered to off the ice and want everything to be just the way it is at home -- including everyone speaking English around them.
During the 2004-05 lockout, there were a few NHL players who signed with European teams with disastrous results. Their play was embarrassingly nonchalant, they barely interacted with non-NHL teammates off the ice and, in one or two extreme cases, did not even feel like they needed to be in tip-top physical shape since they were playing in a lesser league for lesser money than the NHL.
Thankfully, that last group was a small minority. Even so, it does not reflect well when an NHL player goes overseas with a less-than-professional attitude. For the larger group who play OK but find other aspects of the experience untenable, the lesson to be learned is to do careful homework on where you'll be playing before you ever sign on the dotted line.
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