One interesting consequence of these contracts is what it does to the escrow situation, an obscure provision of the CBA, but one that affects all players.  For the ultra-mathy, dig deep into the details with this post by Tyler Dellow, but let me give you the quick-and-dirty.  The salary cap is a hard one- the owners will pay exactly 57% of revenues to the players this season.  However, they don’t know what the actual revenues will be until the season is over, so they do some estimations, and hold back a portion of every player’s salary in escrow accounts.  But here’s the needle- they will pay 57% of the actual salaries, not the cap hits.  So for all of those players that are actually making more than their cap hits (mostly superstars), that drives up the total salary number, which means the escrow withholding is bigger.  And even if the NHL was exactly correct in estimating revenues, the fact that these players made more than their cap hits (calculated based on estimated revenue), that means it’s likely that some or all of that escrow money will go back to the owners.

So the guys that are taking home their cap hit – middle and lower tier players like Scott Nichol – end up with a greater portion of their salary withheld.  These stars are feeding off of the collective, with the idea that they will give back when their salaries eventually are lower than their cap hits.  But we know that these players like Hossa, Luongo, and Kovy will likely retire before they fulfill that part of the contract.  They won’t have to pay the piper at the end, they’ll be on a beach somewhere.  I’ve read some stuff that the escrow number could be as high as 20% under some conditions, and that takes a whole hundred grand off of a guy that’s making the league minimum.  Not cool.

Also, Simon Gagne is traded from the Eastern Conference winning Flyers to the Lightning.  They needed to clear cap space so bad they trade a top-6 forward for Matt Walker and a 4th round pick.  And that cap room they freed isn’t really enough to get the goaltender they said they needed on many occasions.  Also they’re paying Michael Leighton $1.6M now, so whoops!

Just found this on the internets a few days ago (I know, I’m late), but it’s funny, and it fits:

Sweet Lou on the left, Dean Lombardi on the right

We take you now to the front office meeting of the San Jose Sharks, where the determination is made about how to win the Stanley Cup. “I’ve got the answer,” one voice says. “Let’s sign Antero Nittymaki to be our goalie.” There is applause all around. This is, of course, fictional: Or is it? One of the deepest, strongest teams in hockey lost its No. 1 goalie and replaced him with Nittymaki. And this somehow makes them better? There is but one plausible explanation for this: John Ferguson Jr. works for the Sharks. The same man who traded Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft, believed in Justin Pogge and gave up multiple picks for Vesa Toskala. Must be Fergie. Otherwise, can someone please explain what GM Doug Wilson is thinking?

In the immortal words of Will Hunting, that’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot.  Maybe DW was thinking that it wasn’t too smart to sign a goalie with a mid-20s SV% ranking since the lockout to a multi-year deal worth 5 or more million dollars per year.  Maybe he was thinking that both the Flyers and the Hawks has unproven goalies that weren’t making a lot of money, and yet both made it to the Stanley Cup.  And maybe the scouts (and the GM) were tired of a goalie that made all-world saves in certain situations, but gave up 50-foot wrist shots in others.  That a solid, butterfly style for less money is better than an acrobatic style for more money.  That the real improvement needs to be made on blueline.  Since the trades for Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle happened before JFJ got there, maybe DW is just treating him as another scout- a guy that watches players and evaluates them, making the trade and signing decisions himself.  Nittymaki, after all, didn’t play for Toronto, or even in their division.  If JFJ really had DW in his pocket, wouldn’t the Sharks have traded for Tim Thomas by now?

That Cup won't buy you any cigarettes up in here, but we'll take that pretty boy you got.

Sorry I haven’t posted lately, as we’ve said in the podcast, I’ve been out of town, and all the semi-interesting UFA stuff happened before I got back.  This morning, I get the first juicy news since my illustrious homecoming.  The Sharks have signed another difficult-to-spell person that no one expected.  This time, it’s a different Scanadavian country, and a different position- the Blackhawks’ Niklas Hjalmarsson was signed to a 4 year, $14M offer sheet, per Bob MacKenzie.  Hjalmarsson averaged almost 20 minutes of ice time in the #4 hole, behind Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Brian Campbell.  I would be willing to wager (and I imagine DW does too) that Hjalmarsson would not be in that slot for 28 other teams (Philly possibly the only exception).  Assuming this is true, let’s look at at Hjalmarsson’s RFA options from his perspective:

1. Sign with cash-strapped Chicago for a sizable home town discount, even though they have already lost Kris Versteeg, Brent Sopel, John Madden, and Dustin Byfuglien.
2. Get traded by Chicago to a team that offers the best deal to Stan Bowman, which is essentially a crap shoot.  Look where Byfuglien ended up.
3. Have some control over your future, and sign an offer sheet with a decent team for the kind of money that you are looking for.

Clearly Hjalmarsson chose #3, and who could blame him?  Doug Wilson recognized this, and pounced.  Now Stan Bowman, Chicago’s GM, is between a rock and a hard place.  On one hand, he can retain his excellent young defenseman, but will likely have to trade Patrick Sharp or even more to get under the cap again.  On the other hand, he lets NH go (I’m sick of typing Hjalmarsson), gets a 2011 1st 2nd and 3rd round draft pick in return (per TSN), and is in dire need of a #4, #5, and #6 defensemen.  The draft picks will soften the blow, but keep in mind they come from the Sharks, which will likely be late round picks.  No players are left in the upper twenties that are slam-dunk NHLers.  Those picks could easily end up being Matt Pelech and Marc-Andre Gragnani.

This also asks the question- why didn’t the Sharks do this with with Antti Niemi? It’s a good question, but like many, the answer is money.  I think that the Sharks only budgeted $2M or so for a goaltender, and Niemi would certainly want more than that.  We will find out after Niemi’s salary arbitration.

It’s too early to go into the possible Sharks roster ramifications because Chicago could match the deal, and tomorrow will look just like yesterday.  I’d put the chances of that right at 50-50.  Could this spark another GM feud like the Brian Burke- Kevin Lowe dustup?  Lucky for us, we have the first real taste of drama in the Sharks offseason.

What Doug Wilson wants, Doug Wilson gets

Canada Day is done and the Sharks have a new goalie in town, Finnish netminder Antero Niittymaki, who is going to make my spell check crazy for the next two years. This was a shocker, especially since there was so much chatter about the evil Marty Turco and so much hype about former Nashville goalie Dan Ellis. The lesson learned is we all should have listened to Doug Wilson when he said last week that they are looking for a butterfly style goalie – a change of technique from the athletic style of the Franchise Goalie Formerly Known as Nabby. The Sharks signed Niittymaki to a 2 year/4M deal, allowing the Sharks to change styles in net and also not break the bank in the process. Here’s the pros and cons to this deal, as I see it.

PRO: Niittymaki has had a Halak/Niemi type run on the biggest stage in the world by playing out of his mind in the 2006 Winter Olympics, winning a Silver Medal for Team Finland and the MVP of the Men’s Tournament with three shutouts and a 1.34GAA and .951 SV%. This is the type of pedigree I was hoping for in our new goalie – the ability to take over a series. The change of pace/style might be refreshing for this franchise.

CON: Niittymaki has not found this success at the NHL level in consistent stretches and has no real NHL playoff experience. He’s never been the clear #1 goalie and he certainly wasn’t given the title today in San Jose. It sounds like the Sharks will ride the hot hand, which certainly worked for Philly, Montreal and Chicago this season. Doug Wilson was extremely aggressive in signing Niittymaki and I guess gets kudos for getting his target, but given the cash more established goalies like Dan Ellis (2 years/3M in Tampa Bay) and Chris Mason (2 years/3.7M) got later in the day, you would think that DW could have waited and got his man for $500,000 less.

I was shocked earlier today by the move but I think I’m okay with it. I honestly didn’t see what all the fuss was about with Dan Ellis and maybe he’ll prove Yzerman a genius – but that guy peaked in 2008 with his playoff performance against the Red Wings and has been average ever since – and all I can remember about Chris Mason was how the Sharks embarrassed him in the playoffs when he was in Nashville. So, if Doug Wilson and company researched the options and after striking out with Halak, this was the next best thing – I have to trust them. Who’s to say Greiss won’t play the lion’s share of the games or that Alex Stalock won’t be breathing down their necks in training camp. It will be a good old fashioned roster spot battle and that type of fever seemed to work wonders for teams last season.

Manny Malhotra is gone – to Vancouver with a 3 year/7.5M deal. That’s too much cash for Faceoff Master Manny – no thank you. Doug Wilson made the right call here to walk away from the classy Malhotra and I think this is an excellent opportunity to follow another trend that worked this last year – the shutdown pest center. That isn’t Malhotra, he’s too much of a gentlemen and didn’t have the consistent defensive drive that a guy like The Rat Bolland did against the Sharks (notice Bolland is still in Chicago).

We have to all calm down and remember the Sharks Western Conference Finals team roster didn’t take shape until September. I still believe with the 8M of cap room that significant changes will take place and Doug Wilson will add that defenseman we crave, but now via the trade market. Could we see an ironic switch of positions with Vancouver looking to dump the 3.75M contract of Kevin Bieksa on San Jose? Last year the Sharks sent a valuable player in Ehrhoff with the DW special salary dump guy (Lukowich) for two nothing prospects. Could the Sharks get Kevin Bieksa for two prospects we’ll never miss?

So many funny moves today, please chime in with your best and worst deal of the day. So far, I’m taking Darryl Sutter bringing back the poster boy for losing, Olli Jokinen, to Calgary as the WORST contract and a sure sign that Sutter has gone completely bat-$%&# crazy. The best move of the day goes to the Pittsburgh Penguins for getting Z. Michalek on a four year deal worth 4M per season. An outstanding value.