Would A 'Cap Floor' Team Take Mark Streit From The Flyers?

The contracts of Andrew MacDonald and Mark Streit cause two headaches for the Philadelphia Flyers. The first, obviously, is the money. Streit, though he is off the books after this season, is set to make $4 million in cash with a $5.25 million cap hit. MacDonald, signed through 2020, has a cap hit of $5 million and his actual salary rises above that point for its final three years.

The second issue is the fact that they take up roster spots on Philadelphia's crowded blueline. Names like Provorov, Sanheim, Haag, and Morin haven't been given the chance to make the jump to the NHL. This may be due to youth/inexperience, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would rather have MacDonald/Streit for $10 million than Provorov/Sanheim for $2 million.

So.. can we dump those big contracts to create cap flexibility and some roster spots for the young guns?

Salary cap rises to $73 million, lower limit set at $54 million https://t.co/NuxmVliEXp pic.twitter.com/lm8LKXGFhU

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) June 22, 2016

As it stands, the Flyers have $59.7 million committed to 9 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 2 goalies for next season. Add in probably figures for Brayden Schenn, Nick Cousins, Ryan White, Radko Gudas, and Brandon Manning and we come to just about $70 million for 12 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies:

• Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, Couturier, Read, Schenn, Raffl, Laughton, Cousins, White, Vandevelde, Bellemare
• Streit, Schultz, Del Zotto, Gudas, Gostisbehere, MacDonald, Manning
• Mason, Neuvirth

With the current roster setup, they have a complete lineup with about $3 million in cap room. However, this is largely the same team as last year with minimal growth opportunity (and that opportunity is in the middle six forwards, which isn't great).

Let's make The Flyers great again. Warning: this post is about to go off the rails. Can we dump Streit?

I'm jumping into delusional territory, and even I don't think anyone will willingly take on MacDonald's contract. He's a passive defenseman with so-so puck skills, he's owed even more money than his absurdly high cap hit until kids who just graduated from middle school are headed off to college.

Streit, though? His cap figure isn't ideal, but he's owed just $4 million if the Flyers could find a cap floor team to take him off their hands. Are any of them looking for a veteran defenseman who is capable of moving the puck and playing on the powerplay?

Arizona Coyotes

From the cap floor: $14.1 million

Current defensemen: Three. Ekman-Larsson, Goligoski, Michalek, plus they also have several 24-26 year old RFAs to make decisions on

Does Streit fit?: If you had asked me one day ago, I would have said yes. But the 'Yotes signed Goligoski to a 5 year/$27 million contract last night and I'd imagine they'll fill the rest of their d-corps with those RFAs. But, if they are still miles away from the floor and don't want to commit money to free agents that might hinder their ability to pay Domi and Duclair when they become free agents, Streit might be a short-term fit worth a mid-to-late round pick.

Fun fact: When Goligoski's contract expires, he will still not be as old as Mark Streit is right now.

New Jersey Devils

From the cap floor: $10.4 million

Current defensemen: Four. Greene, Larsson, Moore, Severson. Boston College's Steven Santini might make the jump this year.

Does Streit fit?: They certainly could use some offensive production, though I'm not sure if their complete lack of excitement is a bad thing or a good thing in their eyes. Like Arizona, Jersey could use Streit as a short-term plug until more of their prospects are ready to compete, and they'd then have some additional cap space to spend at that point.

Fun fact: The Devils are the worst.

Carolina Hurricanes

From the cap floor: $5.7 million
Current defensemen: Six. Wisniewski, Faulk, Hainsey, Hanifin, Slavin, Pesce. They also have RFAs Ryan Murphy (from American Horror Story/Glee) and Michal Jordan (from Basketball), as well as prospects Haydn Fleury and Roland McKeown.

Does Streit fit?: Long term? Absolutely not. Short term? Probably not. If some things fall into place and Carolina (1) decides the younger guys/prospects are better suited for another year of development in the minors (2) suffers a fairly long-term but not season-ending injury on the blueline (3) is competitive in the Metro this season, then I think they may consider trading for Streit as a mid-season reinforcement.

Fun fact: All of those things are not going to happen, and the Hurricanes are not going to acquire Mark Streit.

Conclusion

We're stuck with him, and that's not a bad thing. He stinks now, but he's an alternate captain, a veteran presence, and a leader. This is going to be a growth year, and it'll be nice to have a steady hand like Streit's guiding the way.

The Senators Traded For Dion Phaneuf

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf seems like a relic from an old era of hockey. He makes $7 million per year to be a big, strong, bruising blueliner.

Those contracts for those players are going the way of the dinosaur. Today's NHL is all about speed, puck movement, and pretending to be injured so the other team gets penalized and/or ejected.

The "old" NHL's prototype defenseman was Phaneuf - a guy who can bully any player on the ice. Dion was paid handsomely when he signed his 7 year, $49 million deal.

The "new" NHL's prototype defenseman is someone more like Erik Karlsson, who might be the most important player to his team in the league. Karlsson, though very different from Phaneuf, has a similar contract - 7 years, $45.5 million.

We could sit here and talk until the cows come home about which style of player is more valuable in the modern NHL. But I'd rather talk about how those two guys now play on the same team.

TRADE: The #Sens acquire defenceman Dion Phaneuf from Toronto in nine-player trade

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) February 9, 2016

 And, just like that, the Senators have committed $13.5 million to a pair of blueliners until 2019 (Karlsson) and 2021 (Phaneuf).

I got to thinking about how big a commitment that really is. The salary cap is a shade over $70 million, so the Sens will be committing almost 20% to just two players (if you're new to hockey, there are 23 players on the active roster).

That said, if you're going to load up on two players, a puck-moving defenseman and a bully-type defenseman are two fine pieces to have. Really, because defensemen generally play more minutes per game, I think it could make a lot of sense to commit a lot of cap space to the team's two best. Let's see how Karlsson and Phaneuf stack up against the rest of the league's D-pairs with the highest average annual value (all numbers from General Fanager):

Big-Spending Canadian Teams

Canadiens: $14.75 million (PK Subban $9 million, Andrei Markov $5.75 million)
Senators: $13.5 million (Dion Phaneuf $7 million, Erik Karlsson $6.5 million)
Jets Next Year: $13.35 million (Dustin Byfuglien $7.6 million, Toby Enstron $5.75 million)

It's really surprising to me that Phaneuf/Karlsson aren't the highest-paid defensive pairing, but Subban's mammoth contract gives them the number one spot on this list.

The Senators are the only team currently battling for a realistic playoff spot, and it's tough to pick Montreal or Winnipeg to leapfrog them this year. In making this list, the general trend was the more you spend on your top two defensemen, the more competitive you are. That was for sure not the case for these three Northern teams.

Spending A Lot To Compete For A Cup

Blues: $11.9 million (Alex Pietrangelo $6.5 million, Jay Bouwmeester $5.4 million)
Predators: $11.857 million (Shea Weber $7.857 million, Roman Josi $4 million)
Wild: $11.7 million (Ryan Suter $7.538 million, Jonas Brodin $4.167 million)
Islanders: $11.5 million (Johnny Boychuk $6 million, Nick Leddy $5.5 million)
Blackhawks $11.3 million (Brent Seabrook $5.8 million, Duncan Keith $5.5 million)
Capitals: $11.25 million (Matt Niskanen $5.75 million, Brooks Orpik $5.5 million)
Kings: $11.0 million (Drew Doughty $7 million, Jake Muzzin/Alec Martinez each $4 million)
Sharks: $10.61 million (Brent Burns $5.76 million, Paul Martin $4.85 million)

I split the "Not Cheap But Not Top Of The League" group into three pieces - the first is teams that planned on being in the hunt and are actually in the hunt.

There's an interesting split between Nashville/Minnesota/LA and the rest - some teams pay a superstar big money, others pay two solid players a little bit less. There doesn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason to which makes more sense.

Spending A Lot Because Our GM Stinks

Panthers: $11.475 million (Brian Campbell $7.142 million, Dmitriy Kulikov $4.333 million)
Jets This Year: $11.25 million (Toby Enstrom $5.75 million, Tyler Myers $5.5 million)
Rangers: $11.2 million (Marc Staal $5.7 million, Dan Girardi $5.5 million)(this makes me happy)
Flames: $11 million (Dougie Hamilton $5.75 million, Dennis Wideman $5.25 million)
Bruins: $10.9 million (Zdeno Chara $6.9 million, Dennis Seidenberg $4 million)
Penguins: $10.55 million (Kris Letang $7.25 million, Trevor Daley $3.3 million)
Lightning: $10.1 million (Matt Carle $5.5 million, Jason Garrison $4.6 million)

I don't actually think Florida's Dale Tallon or Tampa's Steve Yzerman stink. Their teams are in contention, their jobs are secure, they're fine.

But how the fuck do you spend a comboined $21.5 million on those four players? In Florida, they'll essentially hand Campbell's contract to Aaron Ekblad when Campbell retires. In Tampa, it's a little murkier. Right behind Carle and Garrison are Anton Stralman and Victor Hedman (who are better and younger) and Bradon Coburn (who's expiring this summer). That is a mess I would not want to have to sort out.

I have to think Rangers and Bruins fans are upset at how those four contracts have progressed over time. Those two situations are also messes I would not want to have to sort out.

And let's end this section with the Penguins, who having two aging superstars that fell into their laps but have been comically unable to surround them with enough talent to compete for the Cup every year. Could that be because they're paying Kris Letang like he's Drew Doughty instead of using some of that money to afford another competent defenseman?

Spending A Lot But I Don't Know What's Happening

Red Wings: $10.75 million (Mike Green $6 million, Nicklas Kronwall $4.75 million)
Hurricanes: $10.333 million (James Wisniewski $5.5 million, Justin Faulk $4.833 million)

Neither of these teams makes any sense to me. They're in the middle of the pack in the East, they may or may not be rebuilding, and they commit a boring amount of money to the players involved in this exercise. Let's just move on.

The God Damn Flyers
Flyers: $10.25 million (Mark Streit $5.25 million, Andrew MacDonald $5 million)

If the MacDonald contract wasn't on the books, the Flyers' number would be $9.125 million (with Michael Del Zotto's $3.875 million instead of MacDonald's $5 million). That would put them firmly in the bottom tier with the rest of the teams that stink.

As it stands, though, they currently look like an "Our GM Stinks" team for this exercise with a membership to the "Competing For A Cup" group on the horizon.

Cheap, Rebuilding, Or Spending Too Much on Forwards

Oilers: $10.0 million (Andrej Sekera $5.5 million, Nikita Nikitin $4.5 million)
Canucks: $9.5 million (Alex Edler $5 million, Dan Hamhuis $4.5 million
Devils: $9.167 million (Andy Green $5 million, Adam Larsson $4.167 million)
Sabres: $9.043 million (Zach Bogosian $5.143 million, Josh Gorges $3.9 million)
Blue Jackets: $8.857 million (Fedor Tyutin $4.5 million, Jack Johnson $4.357 million)
Stars: $8.85 million (Alex Goligolski $4.6 million, John Klingberg $4.25 million)
Ducks: $8.6 million (Kevin Bieksa $4.6 million, Cam Fowler $4 million)
Coyotes: $8.5 million (Oliver Ekman-Larsson $5.5 million, Nicklas Grossman $3 million)
Avalanche: $8.25 million (Francois Beauchemin $4.5 million, Erik Johnson $3.75 million)
Maple Leafs: $7.15 million (Jake Gardiner $4.05 million, Jared Cowan $3.1 million)

The Devils and Stars, especially, spend an absolutely comical amount on their forwards. It's a wonder they can even afford defensemen. The rest of the teams either have a bunch of contributors on rookie deals or are trying to bottom out for better draft picks.

The number one thing to take away from this is there are a lot of different ways to build a contender. You can do it with a balanced group of defensemen (like the Blues), or with one guy logging a ton of minutes (like the Senators before today), or you can overpay guys who stink and still someone compete (hey, Rangers).

On the flip side, there are a lot of ways to fuck your team up. You can overpay guys, or give them contracts that carry on for too long, or not spend enough money on one area of your roster. Building a hockey team is a tricky business, but we've never seen anything like what Ottawa created today. We'll have to wait to see how it plays out.

NHL Players Are Supremely Underpaid

One of the larger off-ice stories in the NHL this weekend was the report that Tampa Bay offered Steven Stamkos an extension with a cap hit of $8.5 million per year. To be fair, it's probably their opening offer and I would think they know they have to pay him more.

But still, $8.5 million is peanuts in professional sports. It's what Eagles tight end Zach Ertz just signed for. He's a solid contributor, sure, but Stamkos is one of the ten best hockey players on the planet.

This got me thinking about salary discrepancy between the major American sports, let's take a look at some notable cap hits:

MLB Starting Pitchers

Clayton Kershaw, $34.6 million
Zack Greinke, $34.0
David Price, $30.0
Justin Verlander, $28.0
Felix Hernandez, $25.9
CC Sabathia, $25.0
Jon Lester, $25.0
Cole Hamels, $23.5

MLB Position Players

Miguel Cabrera, $28.0 million
Yoenis Cespedes, $27.5
Albert Pujols, $25.0
Ryan Howard, $25.0 (hang on I'm going to go pour myself a tall glass of bleach)
Prince Fielder, $24.0
Robinson Cano, $24.0
Mark Teixeira, $23.1
Joe Mauer, $23.0

NFL Quarterbacks

Drew Brees, $30.0 million
Joe Flacco, $28.6
Eli Manning, $24.2
Ben Roethlisberger, $24.0
Matt Ryan, $23.8
Matt Stafford, $22.5
Peyton Manning, $21.5
Phil Rivers, $21.0
Tony Romo, $20.8
Cam Newton, $19.5

NFL Position Players

Ndamukong Suh, $28.6 million
Calvin Johnson, $24.0
Mario Williams, $19.9
Justin Houston, $19.1
Darrelle Revis, $17.0
Julio Jones, $15.9
Larry Fitzgerald, $15.9
Calais Cambell, $15.3
Demaryius Thomas, $15.2

NBA Players

Kobe Bryant, $25.0 million
Joe Johnson, $24.9
LeBron James, $23.0
Carmelo Anthony, $22.9
Dwight Howard, $22.4
Chris Bosh, $22.2
Chris Paul, $21.5
Kevin Durant, $21.2
Derrick Rose, $20.1
Dwyane Wade, $20.0
Brook Lopez, $19.7

Every single one of the players on this list makes considerably more than any player in the NHL. That makes sense - football, baseball, and basketball are all more popular than hockey and the total revenue will reflect that popularity. Television deals, especially, create this disparity.

But let's take another angle and find some comparables for the highest-paid NHL players:

Jonathan Toews & Patrick Kane, $10.5 million each

The richest men in hockey (both in terms of contract dollars and trophy case prestige) earn Julius Peppers money. They earn slightly more than linemen Cameron Heyward, Ryan Kalil, and Nate Solder. They're also paid just a bit more than NBA role players Wilson Chandler and Monta Ellis.

I was scared to check the MLB list here because baseball players are so overpaid. For $21 million annually, you could either have Toews and Kane... or Ben Zobrist and Kendrys Morales.

Anze Kopitar's new extention, $10.0 million
Alexander Ovechkin, $9.5 million
Evgeni Malkin, $9.5 million
PK Subban, $9.0 million

The $9-10 million range is where you find four of the six highest-paid players in hockey. Stamkos might join this group to make it five out of seven, but I'd bet he surpasses the two Blackhawks.

In other sports, you're lucky if you can get a solid role player for this kind of money. Receivers like Victor Cruz, Brandon Marshall, DeSean Jackson, and Randall Cobb are all in this range. Some notable defensive footballers here are Lavonte David, Aqib Talib, Cameron Wake, and Byron Maxwell (this is a really rough post overall for Philly fans, need more bleach).

In the NBA, this range is split between old guys who are banking a bunch of money in the twilight of their careers (Zach Randolph, Anderson Varejao, Jeff Green) and guys who are in their prime (Mike Conley, DeMar DeRozan, Rajon Rondo).

There are some nice value contracts in the MLB in this range. Primarily, that group is starting pitchers: Chris Sale ($9.2 million), Madison Bumgarner ($10.0), Jeff Samarzdija ($9.0), Edinson Volquez ($9.5).

Sidney Crosby, $8.7 million
Henrik Lundqvist, $8.5 million

Unquestionably among the NHL's elite, you could even argue that Sid and Hank are the best at their position in the league. For the price of them you could have Nick Foles, Jason Witten, Donte Whitner, or Jordy Nelson. If you look to the NBA, instead of a franchise cornerstone you get Tiago Splitter, Brandon Jennings, or Trevor Ariza.

To be fair, there are a pair of cornerstone NBA guys in this range. But they are Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki, who are as old as Topher Grace and the actress who plays the Red Woman in Game of Thrones. Dirk and KG are certainly over the hill, so I guess it makes sense that they're in the same group as Crosby and Lundqvist.

Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz is also in this price range. He's also over the hill and I'm going to need to refill my mason jar of bleach again.

Daniel & Henrik Sedin, $7.0 million each

The Sedin twins' cap hit is matched exactly by linemen Logan Mankins, Michael Bennett, and Desmond Bryant; point guards Rodney Stuckey and Cory Joseph; and infielders Mike Napoli and Yunel Escobar.

It's easy to argue that the Sedins are overpaid (and even easier to argue that they're super fucking weird), but they've been among the NHL's elite for like a decade. Those other guys - not so much.

Tyler Seguin, $5.8 million

Perhaps the best value in the NHL, Seguin's a superstar in Dallas. The best comparable in the NFL is Jameis Winston's rookie contract. To reiterate: a player that had never played a second of professional football signed a contract that paid him as well as one of the most electric young hockey players in the world. What a time to play a sport other than hockey.

The NBA comparable might be even funnier. It's Kyle Korver.

RJ Umberger $4.6 million (I have to start going to a new CVS because I bought out all of the bleach from the one by my house)

At this point in the other pro sports leagues, you're looking at (1) guys you've only vaguely heard of and (2) rookie contracts. Some of my favorite football players (aka the ones I've heard of before) are Rob Ninkovich, Paul Posluszny, and Michael Oher.

The Umberger cap figure is also a great microcosm of the Philadelphia sports scene. As his contract dwindles to its bitter end and moves the Flyers closer to having cap flexibility and competing, he's earning as much as two youngsters that share his building: Jahlil Okafor and Joel Embiid.

Have you guys tried the new Clorox Fresh Meadow Scented Bleach? It really tastes good and makes me forget about how much it sucks to live in Philly.

Sean Couturier's extension, $4.3 million

Happiness! Young talent locked up long term! Hope! We have some!

The only players that can even hope to be in the conversation at this price range are Danny Amendola ($4.4 million), Steve Smith ($4.2), Matt Harvey ($4.3), and a big group of NBA rookie contracts.

That group of rookies - Lillard, Porzingis, Harrison Barnes, to name a few - will almost certainly be getting raises that put them among the group of NBA players at the beginning of this post. I'd guess that for the upcoming cap hits of Lillard/Porzingis/Barnes combined, you could afford to ice a full set of four forward lines of just Sean Couturier clones. I love you, Ron Hextall.

Shayne Gostisbehere, $0.9

Okay fine, this one is a rookie contract so it's kind of cheating.