Although the overseas NHL starts in about a month, many famous hockey players are out of work. The slowly rising salary cap is also to blame.
Attack led by Evan Rodrigues with wings Alex Galchenyuk and Sonny Milan. Behind them, the defensive pairing of PK Subban with Anton Stralman and goalkeeper Braden Holtby.
None of them currently have a signed contract, but they would make a decent starting lineup in an NHL game.
Many other well-known hockey players are also out of work. For example, experienced drummers Keith Yandle or Danny DeKeyser. Although their best years are behind them, they still have a lot to offer.
However, overseas clubs, whose training camps start in about two weeks, have recently been thinking twice about who to invest money in. The slowly rising salary cap is to blame.
For the upcoming season, it increased by just one million dollars to 82.5 million. In the past, it often grew significantly more, even relatively recently. For example, in 2018, general managers received an extra space worth 4.5 million. The stagnation is understandably due to the coronavirus pandemic and related economic problems.
About a third of the clubs in the North American league can now somehow fit under the cap, and another third have already exceeded it, so they have to figure out maneuvers to get out of it. Only the remaining third of the competition has room for a significant signing.
However, even clubs with a decent reserve do not rush too much into signing free hockey players. They have their reasons.
“It’s just unfortunate overall this year that the market has shifted quite a bit because of the salary cap,” an unnamed player agent told ESPN. “It’s a bizarre situation where you have 16 or 17 teams that want to lose, and the rest that want to win. The salary cap actually motivates defeats. You say to yourself: If we don’t advance to the playoffs anyway, we can at least sell a spot under the cap.”
Currently, this place is more valuable than before. Clubs in the process of rebuilding can make decent money from him, by accepting an overpaid hockey player at his zenith from the competition. They will get paid for it in the form of high draft picks.
You can also get an excellent hockey player cheaply with a corresponding price tag. Some time ago, for example, Seattle managed to do this, and it caught Oliver Bjorkstrand in Columbus for a choice in the third and fourth rounds of the draft. Columbus had little choice. After signing Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine, he had to get rid of someone due to a tight cap.
Then again, defeats usually lead to better draft position. And there will definitely be someone to choose from in the next one. Canadian Connor Bedard and Russian Matvej Mickov are already making headlines in hockey countries.
Hockey players without work therefore do not have the best prospects. However, some of them will almost certainly find a new home in the near future. For example, the aforementioned Rodrigues, who collected 43 points (19+24) last year and was able to pull Pittsburgh at times in the absence of Sidney Crosby or Evgeniy Malkin. He gets the job when one of the interested parties manages to free up a place under the ceiling.
However, it does not have to reach other players. “Don’t be greedy,” agent Jerry Buckley advises them. “Find a place where you get a decent salary and play. The last spots can fill up pretty quickly.”
