Steve, Lee and I got to talking about the value of Niklas Hjalmarsson relative to being given a 4-year, 14 million dollar deal by the Chicago Blackhawks. I personally think that for a guy that’s on your second pairing behind Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, it’s a little too high. But I got to thinking, what would be the best way to break down how much should be spent on each forward line, defence pairing and goaltending tandem.
So, I’ve decided to crunch some numbers and give you what I consider to be the best way that a GM could split up his money and succeed in bringing a championship home. Now, to begin, I’ve got it so that my ideal team is spending right to the cap limit, since you don’t usually see a team spending at the floor being successful. Let’s start...
Goaltenders
I’ve said it many times before, but I’ve always found the goaltending position to be over-rated. Yes, I understand that the goalie is the only player on for all 60 minutes and is the only player that has one single responsibility of keeping the puck out of the net, but I would much rather pay to have a great defence in front of my goaltender to limit the chances as opposed to pay too much for a goalie, make my D-corps too thin and have my goalie exposed to quality scoring chances night after night.
That being said, I would spend about 5 million dollars on my goalie tandem. I would pay 4 million or so for a starter and 1 million on a backup, preferably a veteran guy that can fill in if need be due to injury or other circumstances. That way, you should have a distinct starter and backup and not break the bank in the process.
Add in a third-stringer that making the bare minimum and you’re alright.
Defence
For roster sake, we’re paying for 8 defensemen since injuries are inevitable and rest is going to be necessary as well. Here’s where I would spend a good amount of money. I’ve already spent 5 million of my 59 available, which leaves with 54. I would go ahead and spend about 22 million dollars on defence.
In the finals a year ago, we saw that both the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers were using 4-man defence units and were just praying that their 5 and 6 guys weren’t going to make that massive mistake that might cost them the game.
So, I would break it down this way for defence pairings:
Pairing 1: 11 million
Pairing 2: 6 million
Pairing 3: 3 million
Pairing 4: 2 million
It may seem as though I’m going against myself by saying that I want to spend a lot on defence to make sure that my goaltender is well protected and has every chance to succeed, and yet paying my Top 4 defensemen too little, but this where the role of a great GM comes into play. They’ve got to be able to find great players at medium-sized paycheques.
In the salary cap world, it’s all about getting the most bang for your buck and not about having the bucks themselves. Everyone has the same amount of money, so a GM that was used to spending without consequence is going to be penalized way more now because his mistakes are going to be that much clearer.
Besides, paying an average of 5.5 million dollars for each man on the first pairing is not pocket change. That’s a pretty good paycheque for most NHL d-men today. As of today, only 15 defensemen are signed to deals that pay them more than that in this calendar year.
The third and fourth pairings will see very little ice time and are interchangeable to me, so they shouldn’t be getting a lot. I would actually rely a lot on younger guys in these spots to not only fill out the roster cheaply, but to allow them to mature quicker by getting them in NHL games, but not breaking their backs with excessive minutes.
Forwards:
So, we’ve spent 5 million on our goaltenders and 22 million on our defence. That leaves us with 32 million dollars to spend on our forwards. We’ve given contracts to 3 goaltenders, 8 defensemen, so we should give 14 contracts to forwards in order to get us to 25 players on the roster. 32 million for 14 contracts doesn’t seem like a lot, but hear me out.
So, I would break down my forward lines by giving them this much money:
Line 1: 14 million
Line 2: 9 million
Line 3: 5 million
Line 4: 3 million
Two Extras: 1 million
I believe that it’s possible to win championships without superstar players. If you spread the wealth well enough and you spend the money wisely, you should be able to put out a very capable team that will succeed on a nightly basis. Now, the problem being that I’m not factoring the idea of having a superstar with the franchise so that I give a secondary reason for people to buy tickets and other concessions. However, we say it all the time, winning brings butts to the seats.
14 million for Line 1 is pretty reasonable to me. You won’t be able to afford any of the top 25 players in salary at that position, but you could put together a great line with that amount of money. 9 million for the second line should net you some decent scorers as well.
With Lines 3 and 4, you need to have the makeup of defensive players, energy players and most importantly, young players. My third line would be a great counter-punching line of guys who think defence first, but are smart enough to create on the counter-attack so they’re still a threat to score.
My fourth line would be made up of young, hungry and tough guys that can get the crowd going and can possibly change the momentum of a game, if needed. They will have something to prove since they’re young and again, they will be cheap.
The last two guys will again make the minimum.
If only I had a job as a real NHL GM...now back to NHL ’10 as I try and get the Toronto Maple Leafs back into the playoffs... :-)