NHL commissioner not ready to scold Wings brass

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
NHL commissioner not ready to scold Wings brass
Dave Dye / The Detroit News

Columbus, Ohio -- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman isn't a proponent of excessive long-term contracts, but he's not ready to call out the Red Wings for the front-loaded, 11- and 12-year deals signed by Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg.

The Wings extended both deals at $1 million for each of the last two years specifically to reduce the "cap hit" (average salary) for the duration of the contract.

"Since it's four years into the (salary-cap) system, I think it's too early to make any blanket characterizations," Bettman said Tuesday during a news conference at Nationwide Arena before Game 3 of the Red Wings-Blue Jackets series.

"Detroit's a team with a history of players who can play until they're 40 years old and even beyond for a number of years.

"I don't think at this stage it's something that anybody can fully judge. My guess is by the time we're ready to sit down for the next round of collective bargaining (in two or three years), this will be a discussion we'll have with the Players Association. But it's something I don't think we need to fret about right now. It may turn out to all be OK."

Still, Bettman has tried to discourage clubs from taking the long-term approach.

"If I were operating a club, under a cap system, I would try to opt for shorter contracts because they give you more flexibility," he said. "Maybe my words will become more prophetic if the cap flattens out or even recedes a little bit because of the economy.

"Maybe some teams who have long-term commitments at certain levels will be a little tighter under the cap and it will be more difficult.

"You never know if you're going to get it right. You don't want a situation where you're overpaying a player for performance and, by the same token, you don't want a situation where you're underpaying a player. Over a long-term contract, the likelihood that both sides get it exactly right is something that over time you're going to have to judge.

"My sense is, and it's not a condemnation of the long-term contracts, time will tell. My guess is some of them will work out very well. My guess is some of them teams will regret or players will regret having done it."

With the regular season completed, the league has a clearer idea of what the salary-cap limit might be for next season.

That's particularly important for the Wings, who will have major cap issues. The remaining free agents include Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler (restricted), Mikael Samuelsson, Ty Conklin and Tomas Kopecky.

It's unlikely general manager Ken Holland can figure out a way to bring all of them back.

The cap limit, which is tied to league revenues, was $56.7 million this season.

"It'll either be flat or within a couple to three million of where it is, is my best guess," Bettman said. "While revenues have come up in real dollars, revenues are impacted, because they're in U.S. dollars, by the decline of the Canadian dollar.

"So in purposes of the cap, we might be looking at a flat scenario when you do the computation into U.S. dollars."

It also could go down Bettman said.

The players have the option to increase the salary-cap figure by five percent as an inflation bump. Bettman urged them not to last season, but they did and then had to pay back some money. Next season's cap will be affected by the players' decision this time.

"If they take the five-percent inflator, the cap will be about where it is," Bettman said. "If they decide not to take it this time, maybe (the cap) comes down five percent."

Bettman was interviewed during the intermission of the Red Wings- Blue Jackets game on FSN Detroit


This guy is a moron


I hit the mute button as soon as he started answering Mickey Redmond's questions


He is so full of BS

Bettman is the worst commissioner in sports no doubt. I do agree that 10+ year contracts aren't the way to go but not necessarily for his reasons.

catbox_9 wrote:

Bettman is the worst commissioner in sports no doubt. I do agree that 10+ year contracts aren't the way to go but not necessarily for his reasons.

Bettman Sucks