Checkmate: Time to End Salary Cap Chess

The NHL is monitoring the Flyers admist rumors that maybe they held Danny Briere on IR a few days longer than nessicary in order to get under the cap. This is a big no no. Counting 8 million toward the cap, Briere has been on the shelf the majority of the year. Now I am not debating whether he was hurt or not. He underwent surgery on his abdomnen and had various other ailments this season. However the time he was out Philly was bringing in people to fill the ailing defense, whether it was Matt Carle or Andrew Alberts. As the defense came back from injury the cap became more of a concern. The Flyers were able to avoid the Cap problems by keeping Briere on the shelf while they basically had a tryout to determine what seven defensemen would stay with the Flyers. Seriously what were they thinking here?

Their is a salary cap in the NHL so that all teams can be on an equal playing field. It is there to keep teams from throwing obnoxious amounts of money at players. Something that the Flyers still have done despite the fact that the game has changed to no longer be able to do that. The NHL allows for players that are injured to not count against the cap. This is a rule that the Flyers have abused since the start of the Cap Era of hockey. Keith Primeau at first, Mike Rathje and Derien Hatcher all have missed full seasons with "injuries". Now everyone knew these players will probably never suit up in the NHL ever again. However if the Flyers were to buy out the ridiculus contracts it would counts against the cap. So to make sure that they have no dead money Philly put them on the LTIR. Mike Rathje has not played in a NHL game in over 2 years, there has been no indication whatsoever that he is going to return to the NHL at 35 years old it is doubtful he will. He has a year left on his contract and will undoubtly be on LTIR again at the start of next season. That is $3.5 million of cap space that the Flyers have that once again will not count. Over 3 season 10.5 million that has not counted towards the cap, from a team that consistantly is at the maximum amount the cap allows. How is the NHL allowing this to happen? They are allowing players to be signed to long term deals and when the players become ineffective be infinately shelved until their contracts are up, without counting it towards the cap.

Now back to the situation with Briere, the Flyers have been right at the cap all season. By keeping Briere on IR it bought Philly the extra time to see if they could clear room through trades as oppose to waiving players. Briere has been practicing at full speed for well over a week while the Flyers pondered their next move. When Holmgren the GM of Philly could not find a dance partner, he had no choice but to start waiving players. The result Ossi Vaananen and Glen Metropolit ended up on other teams with Flyers not getting any picks or prospects in return. The questions remains though why did the Flyers who have a history of keeping players on LTIR to avoid cap issues keep Briere on the shelf so long? Why did they not make the moves to clear up the cap space in anticipation of his return sooner? Finally what will the NHL find when they look into this matter? I expect we will see nothing come of this maybe a fine at most. For teams that have more money than a stimulus package it does no good. If the NHL is to find out that Briere was held out a week too long they need to comedown hard. Set an example, maybe strip a pick or 2 from the Flyers. That way the message is sent you cannot play games with the cap. One thing is for sure Bettman and his chronies need to look at the abuse of the LTIR and have things tweaked for next season so guys like Mike Rathje is not there for a 4th year in a row. The Abuse needs to stop.




Hey guys just a quick note: a friend of mine (Oz) has just started blogging for Medaille College if you get a chance check Oz's column out. He is an outstanding writer that is very funny. He did his first piece on The Aud in Buffalo so check it out.
http://wmcb.medaillecommunication.com/?author=10