cferneyh Wrote:das_hips Wrote:Maybe it's still the lingering aroma of horse-shit from the Yashin era, but for him to take a fairly modest pay-cut to sign a long-term contract so he can end his career in Ottawa is certainly a welcome change from the past, and a glaring oddity in professional sports (his $4.8 million salary isn't anything to sneeze at, but I'd say he's the best bang for the buck you'll find in the game of all players who have provided consistent point production)...
Speaking of horseshit, lets correct a few things here:
cferneyh Wrote:(1) When Alfredsson signed his long term contract, it was for five years, for a total of $32.5 million. Average that out, and you get $6.5 million a season.
That's a nice salary number; I saw it myself, and have to applaud the writer for their constructive creativity. That '$32.5 million' includes the player options for 09/10, 10/11, and 11/12. Let's re-work that salary number for the eight years. If you don't believe me, feel free to look it up yourself, unless you have come to conclude that there is some sort of statistical reason why his $4.7M salary this year, the three years prior, and his $5.47M salary next year equals $32.5M.
cferneyh Wrote:(2) When Alfredsson signed that deal (in 2004), $7 million was the going rate for guys like Iginla - you know, guys who had scored 50 goals. When Alfie signed that deal, he'd never come close to 50 goals (and still hasn't), and he'd never broken 80 points in a season. So it seems to me that $6.5 million for a guy who - at the time - was a 75-80 point guy, was pretty much the going rate.
It's great that Iginla has had such an impressive career, but again, your $6.5 million quotation is wrong. It just is. Also, as you have provided a player who you deem is appropriate for comparison, please look at the numbers once more.
Since 2000-2001
Alfredsson: 475 GP, 208G, 308A, 516P, 120+/-
Iginla: 488 GP, 245G, 250A, 495P, 61+/- ...
Here are Mats stats since then... Alfredsson and Sundin are the same age,
and before you argue Alfredsson has had a better supporting cast, I'll agree with you, but Alfredsson has played a major role on Ottawa's second line most of last year, and didn't generally share a line with Marian Hossa before the arrival of Heatley, or the emergence of Spezza
Sundin: 487 GP, 206G, 277A, 483P, 46+/-
Break that down on salary alone since 2000, and Iginla and Sundin aren't even in the same ball-park as Alfredsson. Again, I'm not going to argue his pay (which you did so unsuccessfully), I'm arguing talent, and I tend to think you under-estimate the kind of dedicated, and loyal player that Alfredsson really is. Here's a test. If the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Alfredsson is:
A) Boarding Darcy Tucker,
B) Mocking Mats Sundin (his country-man) with the faux-throw of the stick over the boards, or
C) Alfredsson guaranteeing a win,
then you don't know Daniel Alfredsson, and you watch too much Toronto sports media...
cferneyh Wrote:(3) Alfie's "pay-cut" was not his doing. It was a result of the new CBA where all contracts in place were rolled back 24%.
Pretending for a moment that the NHLPA wasn't expecting the salary cap to increase (which they were, and argued with that presumption against the cap in the first place), either Alfredsson's agent is retarded, or Alfredsson just took a relatively safe, and financially rewarding long-term contract. I don't know any NHLPA lawyers, or agents, but I assume they're not retarded.
cferneyh Wrote:(4) Since the 2004 season, his production has picked up. I think there are a lot of factors that have contributed to this - the "new" NHL, the Sens firing Jacques Martin (and dropping Martin's "defense first" approach), and - most importantly - the maturation of Jason Spezza. I'm sure you'll say "but Spezza and Alfie don't always play on the same line", and I'll simply point to tonight's game where both of them had three points......and each of their three points came on the same goals, indicating they are certainly spending some time playing together. And I'm sure we can agree that playing with Jason Spezza - even part time - is a step up from Radek Bonk, or Todd White, or Bryan Smolinski, or whoever else he was saddled with pre-Spezza.
I'm not going to argue with you over the Jaques Martin era. That was clearly a different team, if not only by personnel, but by approach. They were a lower scoring team then, without a doubt. But Alfredsson was still a point+/game player in that era, and the "new NHL", or change on the bench has opened him up even more. And regarding the line combinations, clearly having Spezza, and especially Heatley on the line has helped Alfredsson, but you're ignoring the implication that he has made them better players as well. You're also ignoring the fact that Alfredsson played only a little more than half the year with that crowd last year, virtually none the year before, and neither were present before that.
cferneyh Wrote:(5) Best bang for the buck? Hardly. Take a look at Zetterberg - he's making $2.4 million this season and next season. There's a guy who needs to fire his agent.
I was unaware of his salary. I'll give you that one, because that definitely is a steal.
I welcome you to actually watch a Senators' game, and find an instance where the announcer, home or away, doesn't describe Alfredsson as the most dominant player on the ice. And just 58 weeks ago, the media, and the impatient, and the fickle all screamed, city-wide "Alfie's got to go"... for Conroy...
You can try and shit on Alfie as much as you would like to. It doesn't matter to me. I know he is a phenominal player, who gives his all, and does his best every game to win that game. He is a better player than Spezza, and Heatley. His time-on-ice is nearly tops in the league, and he is one of the predominant reasons why Ottawa's penalty killing is stellar, and has the most short-handed goals in the leauge (two years running). I don't have a bad thing to say about Mats. Oh, and that Olympic Gold where Mats was captain? Alfredsson had more points.