[cferneyh]

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:

(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.

(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.

(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%.

(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.

(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.