RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling CROSSCHECK 8.15.05 - How much is a goalie worth?

The market appears to be set for forwards and defensemen. Calgary just bolstered it's blue line with the addition of Roman Hamrlik for $3.5 million/year. Sounds about right for a guy with his skills.

What I find interesting is the goalie market. In my opinion, so take that for what it's worth (probably not much), goalies seem to be all over the place. Here is a short list of goalies all hockey fans should know by name and reputation, and their salaries, from highest to lowest.

• Nikolai Khabibulin - Chicaga Blackhawks - $6.75 million
  
• Martin Brodeur - New Jersey Devils - $5,237,238
  
• Eddie Belfour - Toronto Maple Leafs - $4.56 million
  
• Mikka Kiprusoff - Calgary Flames - $2.9 million
  
• Sean Burke - Tampa Bay Lightning - $1.6 million
  
• Dominik Hasek - Ottawa Senators - $1.52 million
  
• Brian Boucher - Phoenix Cayotes - $900,000
  
• Chris Osgood - Detroit Red Wings - $900,000

Looking at the list, I gotta wonder why this market is so different from the clearly defined market of forwards and defensemen. Hasek's contract makes sense. He has been injured, and he is trying to return. Why Toronto held on to Belfour at such a ridiculous salary confuses me. He is a big if. There is no guarante that after the year off he'll be able to return at the same level he was at when he signed the original deal (pre rollback, of course).

Theoretically, Brodeur should be setting the market value, but free agent Khabibulin, coming off a Stanley Cup championship, gets that honor. I still think that if he isn't a Vezina finalist, or if he doesn't put on another Conn Smythe worthy playoff performance, then he is very much overpaid. Then again, he's not the only free agent Chicago overpaid this month. Martin Lapointe is not worth $2.5 million, and neither is an average defenseman like Spacek. Both are going to have to elevate their games.

Khabibulin's Stanley Cup finalist counterpart, Mikka Kiprusoff, is recieving a much more reasonable $2.9 million. Kipper still has a lot to prove, like that last season wasn't a fluke. The smaller goalie gear will make things interesting for everyone.

Veteran Sean Burke is being paid $1.6 million. Comparing that to shutout record holder Brian Boucher, and former Stanley Cup Champion Chris Osgood, who are both making $900,000 boggles the mind. How is Burke worth more than either of them at his age? By the way, did you know Osgood has never had a losing season? Not only that, he backstopped the New York Islanders out of the dumps and into the playoffs his first season there. In St. Louis in '03-'04, he went on a hot streek when the offense was colder than ice and kept them in the playoff picture.

All that said, I couldn't really tell you where the unsigned goalies will fall. At this point, they are going to have to take what the remaining teams still looking for goaltenders can afford to offer them. I don't expect anyone to sign for more than $2.5 million at this point, and that might be pushing it. We will have to wait until next summer for the goalie market to make more sense and become a bit more predictable. However, even then, goalies could chose to take less to stay with a winning team. Time will tell.

The only thing i can think of is that guys like Burke, who hasnt had a good year for at least 5 yrs. must have really good agents.

And some goalies may want to get out of a situation due to lack of playing time or not liking the attitude in the dressing room, so they agree to less money.

To me, Brodeur should set the standard. The Belfour deal is a killer. The Leafs threw I think $8 million at him during the lockout, and then r gonna pay him $4.56 mil p/yr? John Ferguson fucked up big time there.

No question about it. Belfour is way overpaid. Brodeur should set the standard, however, he wasn't on the market this year. Had he been on the market, he would have been looking at $7 million. I think. Khabibulin really messes things up. I think the good news about his deal is that everyone sees that Chicago overpaid for most of their free agents.

Chicago would have been better off saving money by resigning Berard than bringing in Spacek. And they should have just resigned Thibault. The guy stood on his head for them the last couple of years while they were rebuilding, and they repaid him by replacing him with a more expensive model.

The good news for Thibault, who will be making $1.5 million with the Penguins, is that he will be playing behind what might be the highest scoring offense in the league. Already stacked with Lemieux, Recchi, Palffy, Crosby, and Gonchar (anyone ever actually see this guy play defense?), they just added power forward John Leclair. Granted, Leclair hasn't been quite as effective in recent years, but he's still got soft hands around the net, and with this team, he's going to finish a lot of plays.

Vincent Lecavalier decided to forgo free agency next season. He signed a four year deal to stay in Tampa Bay for $27.5 million ($6.875 million/year). Being that he is their franchise player, this is a really good thing for the Lightning. Now they just have to find a way to lock up Brad Richards and sign Martin St. Louis. Hopefully, with the money they're saving in goal, they can pull it off.

Alexander Mogilny signed a two year deal to return to the Devils. This is great news for Scott Gomez, who has been lost without Mogilny on his right wing. Gomez is a play-making center with amazing passing skills. He has wrongly been expected to finish plays in recent seasons. Assuming Mogilny is healthy, Gomez should easily be able to set him up for 40+ goals.

I don't think Tampa can re-sign both Richards and St.Louis. If they do, they're gonna have to fill up the rest of the team with guys making close to league minimum. Mainly because Richards won the Conn Smythe and I think St.Louis won the Heart Trophy. With those awards, come a big price tag.

As for Mogilny. I don't see him posting 40+ goals. I've seen his decline for the few years he's been here. If he couldn't post 40 goals with Sundin & Roberts, he's not going to do it with Gomez. And remember, he's gonna probably miss a good chunk of the season to rest up before the playoffs. Expect a good year from Gomez not only because he's due, but because having Mogilny on the wing will make defenders honest.

I don't know. Mogilny has had time to heal. Plus, while I don't want to take anything away from Toronto, I think Rafalski and Malakhov give Mogilny better point men on the powerplay, and I think Gomez is a better playmaking (remember Adam Oates?) center than Sundin. Add in Elias (as soon as he is 100% recovered from the Hepititis A that he got playing in Russia) and that's an extremely dangerous powerplay unit. As for even strength play, even if it is New Jersey, Raflaski will have set plays to launch Gomez and Mogilny on two-on-one breaks from their own end. I think losing the red line will make Mogilny and Gomez a lot more effective.

That is if he's the AlMo of old. A hip injury never really goes away. All you have to do is turn funny and then you're back on the injured list.

But ur right, regardless of weather he's healthy or not, That sounds like a pretty scary powerplay.


I was watching TSN(Canadian ESPN) and they were talking about the free agents that were still available. And then it hit me. Who gave Lindros his worst concussion?

If the Leafs want to protect Eric Lindros' coconut, they should sign the man that would be the most likely to scramble his eggs. They should sign Scott Stevens.
Who would take a run at Lindros or Allison, when they kno for sure that there would be a bounty on their head?

Just a thought.

That would be a great move, if Toronto has the cap room. Stevens could command at least $1 million. More likely, he'll sign for something similar to Chelios' $850,000. The difference between Chelios and Stevens is that Chelios has proven to be very durable in recent seasons. He's a warrior in the tuest sense. While I need to see him play half the season before I make up my mind, based on what I saw in '04, I think Chelios has another few years left in him. Stevens really took a beating when he went out, in part due to his extremely physical style of play. Like Chelios, Stevens needs to tone things down. However, if he's got anything left, knowing that he's out there definately changes how forwards think when he's on the ice. I have no idea what he's capable of at this point in his career, or what New Jersey is offering him. Expect the Devils to overpay to keep their captain. He's too important to their identity.

Curtis Joseph signed a one year deal with Phoenix. No word yet on how much. Now that he's out of the way, the other free agent goalies will be finding homes over the next week.

WOW! Mogilny singed a two year deal for $7 million. New Jersey never spent like that before. Word is, Mogilny's hip feels better now than it has in years. It's a gamble to cought up $3.5 million a year, but if his hip can take the grind of the season, then a healthy Mogilny means a lot of much needed goals and star-power for the gritty, defensive Devils. Turns out Florida was trying to outbid the Devils, but they couldn't compete with the two year $7 million deal. Toronto was never in it, cause they have no money.

In other news, the NHL will now be exclusive to OLN. Well, except for some Saturday games late in the season, games 4-7 of the Stanely Cup Finals. NBC has those. Monday and Tuesday nights will feature OLN exclusive games. Two games a week on OLN, HNIC on Saturday nights, and plus the Wings on FSN the rest of the time sounds good to me. I think I'll be watching a lot less RAW and a lot more hockey this season.

*sob* I can't get HNIC on DirecTV! *sob*


And . . . as for Osgood coming back to Detroit . . . my opinions and thoughts on that are still kinda "ehh".

It hasn't been the same at the Joe since Ozzie left. He's never had a losing season, he knows how to handle the pressure of playing in Detroit, and he's probably one more Stanley Cup Championship and four more winning seasons away from being a Hall of Famer. It's just a small group of fans who like to blame the goalie for everything and a small group within the media who have no clue about hockey (and it's a mystery why they write about it) who cast that shadow of doubt over him. True, Ozzie doesn't win games by himself, but how many goalies can actually do that? Put a good team in front of him, and he'll take them all the way.