Fehr Needs A Plan

from Larry Brooks of the NY Post, In the NHL, a rising tide sinks small ships. The more revenue generated by major-market, money-printing machines such as Toronto, the Rangers, Montreal, Philadelphia and Vancouver?thus inflating the ?gross??the more money small-market clubs such as St. Louis, the Islanders, Carolina and Florida are mandated by league law to spend on payroll because of the patently preposterous cap floor.

Eliminating the floor should be Priority 1 for PA chief Donald Fehr next time around. This notion that Carolina?s payroll should somehow be directly related to Toronto?s revenue is not only absurd, it means the Hurricanes necessarily will lose more money, thus both increases escrow while fueling the self-fulfilling prophecy of increased losses by small-market clubs that sends Bettman into the labor battle with the hammer to demand give-backs because of rising losses by small-market teams.

The man is actually quite ingenious, come to think of it.

The floor is supposed to guarantee the holy grail of competitive balance, but it doesn?t. Buyouts go toward the floor. Entry Level bonuses that may never be and quite often never are attained, go toward the floor.

Forcing franchises that can?t afford it to commit a certain portion of their assets to payroll means they have less to invest in scouting and player development, areas fundamental to long-term success.

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Source: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/fehr_needs_a_plan/

Martin Erat Marcel Goc Jamie Lundmark Nick Spaling Pikka Rinne Mathieu Carle