Fuzzy Math

Let's rewind a few weeks to the start of the free-agency period. The most coveted free-agent available this year, Marian Hossa, shocks everyone and signs with the Chicago Blackhawks. In one fell swoop Hossa signed with his former team's rival (not surprising considering his track record), displaced his friend and former Blackhawks star Martin Havlat, and added to an already ballooning Chicago payroll.

Oh, but it's okay. Hossa got one of those crazy, new, front-loaded contracts that makes everything okay! Want me to explain? I'd love to!

Chicago signed Hossa to a 12 year deal worth $62.8 million. Ludicrous, but here's the catch; the contract is heavily front-loaded so even though Hossa will make nearly $8 million for the next seven seasons, his contract will drop to $4 million and less for the last 5 years. This averages Hossa's cap-hit to $5.167 million per season. In short, a team can only have about $57 million worth of contracts per season. So by giving Hossa this contract, they have around $3 million more in cap space for the first seven seasons than they would if Hossa's cap-hit matched his actual cash dollars.

Don't worry, the hard math is almost over and I'll get to the interesting stuff. Why is this contract so strange? Let's compare it to that of Eric Staal on my favorite team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Staal is a comparable player to Hossa in terms of offensive production. Staal is also signed to a long term deal and also for a lot of money. However, Staal's cash dollar amount starts at $6 million and goes up to $9.5 million at the end of the deal. This gives Staal a large cap-hit of $8.25 million. Here is the key difference; when Staal's contract expires he will be 32 and in the prime of his career. When Hossa's deal expires he will be 42 and ready for bingo (in hockey years that is).

The Hurricanes should be able to justify the steep cap hit in 2015 because Staal should still be putting up big numbers. Can Chicago justify wasting over $5 million in cap space on a guy who may not be nearly as productive?

This is where it gets interesting. There is an allegation that Hossa and the Blackhawks have a secret deal in place that Hossa will retire before the end of his contract, thereby preventing Chicago from having to pay him the low end of the contract in the future and also preventing them from wasting the cap space now. For Hossa and the Blackhawks it's a win-win. Get a guy in the prime of his career, pay him lots of money now, and take a smaller cap-hit by circumventing the rules of the CBA (the Collective Bargaining Agreement, in layman's terms, the rules).

Why stop there? They could have signed him to a 40 year deal, pay him $8 million for the first 10 seasons, then pay the league minimum of $500,000 for the last 30. His cap-hit would be $2.375 million and he could retire at the age of 40 and nullify the last 30 years of the contract. Well, that would be about as transparent as a Filet-O-Fish wrapper and since it is totally against the rules, they lessen the risk of getting caught by signing him to the contract he has now.

Well, the NHL thought something was rotten in Denmark anyway because they have launched an investigation of Hossa and Chicago's deal. If they are found guilty of malfeasance, Chicago faces a maximum penalty of $5 million and the loss of draft picks. I would imagine Hossa's contract would be declared null and void as well, thereby making him a free-agent. From there I'm sure Hossa and the Blackhawks could figure something out that didn't fly in the face of the rules.

So to tally it up; so far this summer Chicago has misfiled their RFA qualifying offers, unceremoniously fired their much loved GM, and potentially signed Marian Hossa to an illegal contract. Quite a bit of funk blowing around in the Windy City...

It Is Broke, So Fix It

There is an inherent problem with the NHL All-Star Game. It should be an exciting spectacle of high-talent, high-intensity hockey. The talent is high, but not always the intensity. Why? Because it's in the player's best interest (and that of the team he belongs to) to sandbag it. What incentive is there to play hard? Why risk injury? A Honda Pilot if you're named MVP? A little more bling for your trophy cabinet? Pretty insignificant when we're talking about multi-million dollar players who only lust for one, big trophy by the name of Lord Stanley's Cup.

Well, why not take a page from Major League Baseball and give the winning conference home ice advantage for the playoffs? Not only would that not sit well with hockey purists, it simply doesn't make sense for the NHL. Not a knock on baseball, but hockey is a full contact sport. In hockey, giving it your all means laying your body on the line every shift. Imagine this; Eric Staal goes all out, lays a full contact hit on an opposing player, and dislocates his shoulder. He's out for the season and for what? So divisional rival Washington can get home ice advantage and win the Cup? It doesn't make sense for hockey.

So how then? In what way do you bring out the intensity in the All-Star Game without risking a player's health? You don't. You can't and you don't. Part of the reason hockey is such an intense, uptempo sport is because there is that physical risk. Take it away and you lose the crux of the appeal.

Is it a lost cause then? Do we accept that the All-Star Weekend is a glorified breather for the players? After all, one of the best players in the game sat out the All-Star weekend (albeit due to "injury") and he lifted the big one over his head this summer. How can the NHL increase the appeal while maintaining as little risk as possible to the players? Simple; "John Kerry" the whole weekend and flip-flop the schedule. Make the All-Star Game itself the triumphant opening to the weekend and make the SuperSkills Competition the main attraction.

Seems counterproductive, right? Well, what is the All-Star Game for? It's supposedly to display the games greatest players and potentially entice more fans to watch the game. How does that work when those players are sandbagging it to prevent injury? It just ends up looking like Ice-Capades to the untrained eye. Do we really want a potential fan tuning into the All-Star game and thinking our beloved sport is boring? Not I.

So this flip-flop achieves what? Try to imagine this scenario. A guy/girl goes into work and says to his/her friends, "Did you see the NHL All-Star Game this weekend? There was this sweet tic-tac-toe pass on the game winning goal." Not exactly enthralling to a non-hockey fan. Okay, now try this one, "Did you see the NHL Super Skills Competition this weekend? This 6'9" guy hit a slap shot that was 105 miles an hour!" Which one are you more willing to tune into? The latter appeals to what American sports fans love so much about baseball; the stats. How fast can a player skate around the rink? How fast can he belt a slap shot? How fast can he break the targets? Not to mention the fact that there is a greatly reduced risk of injury in these events. It's all gravy.

Don't stop there either. Make more SuperSkills events that test other aspects of the game. Make the casual fan say, "Wow, I need to see that in a game!" It's better than, "This is what the best in the world has to offer? Boring!"