Easy Way Out Of Boston: NHL Investigating Savard Deal
Ty Anderson | Aug 10, 2010 | Comments 7
After reports surfaced in December, it appears the NHL will actually investigate the Marc Savard deal.
Take one deep breath and join me as we recap the past year in the world of Marc Savard, won’t you?
After putting up a career-year in 2008-09 and following that up with a tremendous playoff run, you’re not welcomed to Team Canada’s Olympic summer camp while line-mate Milan Lucic is. Then your line-mate and winger that put up 36 goals the season prior is shipped off to your home-province of Ontario in the trade that eventually gets the Bruins Tyler Seguin (another center) after a turbulent regular season where you had no real scorers to dish the puck to. This coming after your clock was cleaned by an unpunished cheapshot from Matt Cooke only to have you play the role of the resilient hero in your first playoff game back and later become the goat in the final one, completing the impossible nightmare–a 3-0 series lead meltdown at the hands of the Flyers.
Not only that, but while you’re out trying to enjoy your off-season on the golf links in typical Savard fashion, your name becomes the subject of every trade rumor on the internet, including destinations ranging from Ottawa to Florida.
And you thought all those hours you’ve spent on Capgeek.com trying to make the 2010-’11 Bruins capable of icing a full-team was mentally taxing.
When the rumors came across the wire in December of 2009 that the National Hockey League was going to be “looking into” the seven-year extension given to the Bruins’ top-line center (along with a few others), the thought seemed laughable. The league that has been consistently bullied by its teams and star-players since the resumption of the lockout was going to do something?
However, it appears that Ilya Kovalchuk might have spoiled the party for all as the Devils’ perhaps-deliberate circumvention of the salary-cap has led to the NHL’s official launch of a cap-cheating investigation focusing in on players in Chicago, Philadelphia, Vancouver and yes–Boston.
Seemingly taking a page out of the aforementioned teams’ books when it came to keeping Savard a Boston Bruin, the Bruins’ seven-year pact with #91 assured that the club would be able to keep their pivot in town on a reasonable deal that included an under-35 buyout option along with a near league-minimum figure to boot in the event of the seemingly inevitable buyout.
For those who don’t seem to be fluent in the linguistics of the NHL’s CBA, it basically states the following:
When a player aged 35 or older signs a multi-year contract, his average salary is counted against the team’s salary cap during every year of the contract, even if the player retires before the contract is up.
Basically, we can look at this way; Savard turned 32 this off-season and likely wasn’t going to settle on a two-year extension so that his numbers would go down with age and have him lose out on his final major payday. Also, the Bruins weren’t going to run the risk of him putting together two more solid seasons only to sign him over the age of 35 and have the responsibility of signing him and being unable to buy him out with the average cap-hit still affecting the team while Savard’s at home or with another club.
So what did Boston do? They took the easy way out, appeasing both themselves and the Savard party with a seven-year extension that would by all means keep Savard a Bruin for at least four or five seasons. But now, Boston could once again be looking for the easy way out regarding Savard.
It was no secret that the B’s wanted to rid themselves of their playmaker-supreme this off-season. Be it for his lack of responsibility regarding the too-many-men call that doomed the Bruins in Game 7 or the surplus of centers within the organization, the B’s have continually failed to find a suitor for Savard.
Finding themselves in a true albatross with Savard and 2.1 million dollars over the salary cap, could the Bruins front-office be hoping that the league actually nullifies the deal and makes Savard a free-agent, axing out the need for any cap-magic in the Hub?
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Filed Under: Boston Bruins • Eastern Conference • Featured • NHL • NHL Teams • Rumors
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Ty:
I don’t doubt for a minute that some members of the B’s front office hope the contract gets scuttled: freeing up $4-MM in cap space is a big deal. I also think it’s laughable how obviously Lou Lamoriello in NJ also wanted Kovalchuk’s deal overturned and then practically rejoiced when the rejection was upheld.
His statement yesterday on the ruling referred to “… Arbitrator Bloch’s award…” as if he was handed some trophy to be able to renegotiate a saner deal.
The thing I believe that gets under the skin of the league is how the end years of these “Circumvention” contracts always drop down into the nearly minimum wage region of $525K to $550K to guarantee a cheap buyout and significant lowering of the cap hit.
Savard and Pronger have incredibly similar deals that both nose-dive to $525K for the last 2 years. Take those away and their respective cap hits would jump up by about $1.5-MM.
I’m in the group of people that think Lou had this one set up from the start. He’s been around the block and he’s an incredibly business-savvy GM in a league of win-now concepts from the front-offices, and this may have been the ultimate way to put an end to these deals.
The Bruins (and Flyers both) signed these guys with the intentions of buying them out, conveniently signing Savard and Pronger before they turned 35 (along with Thomas, who signed a four-year front-loaded extension mere days before his 35th birthday).
However, while I think these investigations are a good way to try and scare teams out of signing these deals, I doubt that the NHL will be able to void them based on the lawsuit that could come from the Marc Savard camp.
Let’s face it–the guy is banking in for the rest of his career with this deal. You can’t take 28 million away from him and say “Go find a new team and new contract with a month to go before training camp” given his injury concerns. I just don’t think they have the fortitude to actually do it.
If the unthinkable happens and the NHL continues to get an arbitrator to agree that deals like Savard’s are invalid, I believe the most likely scenario is that the incumbent club (e.g. Boston) would quickly renegotiate something acceptable to both player (Savard) and league office.
In fact, i wonder if behind the scenes that’s already happening: Chiarelli and Savard’s agent might be making a plan B deal so that the Bruins aren’t left stunned and unprepared if the contract is rescinded.
But I’m with you: I really, really, really hope the NHL doesn’t go on some needless power trip and disrupt several clubs’ carefully planned salary situation and rosters.
Nice summary of Savard’s season, but the NHL IS NOT INVESTIGATING any other suspicious deals, other than the Kovy deal with NJ. The Bruins are stuck with Savard’s contract unless they find a taker for him.
Fred,
You may want to read all those articles that are being written on Puckdaddy, TSN, et al. that have headlines that read “NHL Investigating Other Suspicious Deals.”
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=330099
Vancouver’s GM confirmed that they’re complying with NHL info. requests. Dark times for the NHL.