You know, it’s been over a month since anyone in the big-4 sports scene has won a trophy or an award of any kind (congrats to Germany, but I’m still not counting you for this purpose). For the last hardware, we have to go back to June 24th at the NHL Awards, where the big winner was Sidney Crosby, he of the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Art Ross Trophy, the Lester B. Pearson Award and somehow the FIFA Golden Ball.
Anyway, it’s been a while, and it’ll still be a while until the World Series trophy is dolled out. That’s over 4 months without anyone winning anything. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? ISN’T SPORTS ABOUT WINNING THINGS?
Hey there, calm down (he said, rhetorically). I’m here to satisfy your craving for things being won. Welcome to the 2014 NHL Offseason Awards, where I arbitrarily hand out useless, made up and often silly awards to people who couldn’t care less about the fact that they have been recognized in such a manner.
The “Take Your Agent To Dinner” Award (given to the player who most benefited from his agent’s diligent work in making him overpaid) : Dave Bolland
So David Clarkson signed a godawful contract last summer that’ll pay him $5.25 million dollars per year for another 6 years. Meanwhile, the Panthers are paying Dave Bolland $5.5 million per year for the next 5 years. Dave Bolland is a career third-liner who has never scored more than 19 goals or 28 points in a season; Clarkson scored 30 in a (contract) year. And again, his contract was terrible. Bolland’s is even worse.
Never has one goal been worth so much money.
The “Drunk Guy At A Bar” Award (given to the team who seems to have spent money without thinking things through) : Calgary Flames
Jonas Hiller’s contract wasn’t good (2 years, $4.5 million per), especially when you consider that Ondrej Pavelec (.904) is the only goaltender with a worse save percentage in the past 3 seasons (for goalies with at least 140 GP) than Hiller’s .911 – and that number by itself screams disaster in more ways than one. The Flames also overpaid Mason Raymond, at $9.5 million total over 3 years. Raymond isn’t a bad player, but after numerous injury woes, he still couldn’t crack the 20-goal mark last year despite playing all 82 games.
But the worse move of all was signing Deryk Engelland, yes, Deryk Engelland, to a 3 year, $2.9 million per contract. That’s right, $2.9 million PER YEAR. He’s a fringe NHLer at best, a bordeline 7th defenceman, and somehow he’ll be making more money next year then actual NHL-caliber blueliners like Jared Spurgeon, Nick Leddy and Karl Alzner.
Brian Burke might not have beer goggles, but he certainly has truculence goggles.
The “Big Corsi” Award (given to the team who has demonstrated an extraordinary effort in pursuing advanced metrics darlings) : Edmonton Oilers
The contracts aren’t outstanding, but in getting Mark Fayne and Derrick Pouliot (at $3.5 mil and $4 mil per respectively), the Oilers are clearly embracing the advanced possession stats. Both players were among their team leaders in Corsi-for % (the relative index of shot attempts for versus shot attempts against while on the ice). Fayne has been a solid defender for a few years now in New Jersey, while Pouliot was a key member of the Rangers’ Cup Final run, playing on what turned out to be New York’s best line against the Kings (alongside Derrick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello).
Quick, someone translate “puck possession” in Russian for Nail Yakupov before he’s traded.
The “Juan Francisco” Award (given to the team who struck out too many times this summer) : Detroit Red Wings
Dan Boyle (Rangers). Matt Niskanen (Capitals). Christian Erhoff (Penguins). Anton Stralman (Lightning). Stéphane Robidas (Maple Leafs). Tom Gilbert (Canadiens).
That’s the (non-exhaustive) list of defenceman that the Red Wings were chasing on July 1st. Besides the names of the players are the teams they chose over Detroit. And what do all those teams have in common? They’re all in the East, just like the Wings are.
In case you’re wondering, Juan Francisco is the active leader in strike outs per at bat for players with at least 1,000 plate appearances (at the time of this writing), at a staggering pace of 34.6%.
Wings fans can take solace, though, in the fact that, in about 8% of his at bats this season, Francisco has hit a home run.
Which must be how they describe the resigning of Dan Cleary, right?
The “If It Ain’t Broke” Award (given to the team.s that sensibly kept a winning formula pretty much intact) : Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings
This one’s a tie, and it goes to the last two Stanley Cup champions (who are definitely among the favourites going into this year). The Hawks lost double-backup Jason Labarbera to the Ducks (tear) and took a one year, $2 million dollar flyer on Brad Richards. Meanwhile, the Kings were able to resign Marian Gaborik, Matt Green and Jeff Schultz, only losing Willie Mitchell from their Cup winning core. Not exactly a fire sale.
I doubt I’ll be giving these two the award next year, however. In Chicago, the extensions to both Kane and Toews kick in after this season (a jump from $6.3 mil each per year to $10.5 mil), while Brandon Saad and Nick Leddy will both be looking for extensions as RFAs.
And while LA doesn’t see any big extensions kicking in, they have a lot of key guys coming off the books after this season. It starts with 6 RFAs, including the great trio of Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson and Jake Muzzin. Add to that the 5 UFAs that include the likes of 2014 Conn Smythe winner Justin Williams, 2014 Cup-clincher Alec Martinez, and Erin Andrews boy-toy Jarrett Stoll, and there’s a good chance the Kings have a much different look in 2015-2016.
But for at least one more year, the Kings and Hawks appear to be the class of the West. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.
The “College Freshman” Award (given to the team who did enough to achieve the minimum requirements and nothing more) : Buffalo Sabres
in this case, I’m talking about the minimum requirements of the salary cap. Despite spending nearly $48 million dollars total so far this offseason, the Sabres still have over $10 million dollars of cap space (according to capgeek), and that’s for a 25 man roster. When they get down to 21, they could be anywhere from 13 to 15 million short of the $69 million dollar cap; they’ll definitely be among the league’s lowest spenders (and closer to the $51 million dollar floor than most).
This team is still in the Connor McDavid sweepstakes. If you think Matt Moulson, Andrej Meszaros, Brian Gionta and Josh Gorges have suddenly transformed Sabres from a 21 win team to a playoff team, you should apply for their marketing department, I’m sure they’d be thrilled to have you.
The “Sun Rises In The East” Award (given to the player who endured the most predictable outcome) : Thomas Vanek
If Vanek signing with the Wild took you by surprise, you might be among the few remaining. The writing’s been on the wall for a while now, with numerous outlets speculating he’d find his way to Minny, like this one, this one, or this one. And many more.
If you haven’t heard by now, Vanek played college hockey at the University of Minnesota. His wife is from Minnesota. And his good buddy ol’ pal Jason Pomminville plays in Minnesota. To say it was likely for him to wind up there was an understatement. Luckily (or unluckily?) for the Wild, Vanek struggled in the postseason with the Habs and ended up only costing them $19.5 million over three years, instead of a potential $40 million dollar contract.
The “Transformers” Award (given to the team who has changed the identity of its franchise this summer) : Toronto Maple Leafs
First the Leafs fired their assistant coaches. Then, they hired Brendan Shanahan to be the in charge of all hockey operations (except for the things Dave Nonis does?). Then they fired more assistants, this time asst. GMs, who they replaced with advanced metrics/midichlorian-infused wonderkid Kyle Dubas. Meanwhile, on the roster side of things, they let guys like Dave Bolland and Mason Raymond walk because they were going to be overpaid, and added 6 new faces (well 5 if you don’t count the return of Leo Komarov) without paying more than 3 million for any of them.
So to reiterate, the Leafs brought in people that are embracing the advanced metrics movement, all the while resisting to overpay a washed up veteran? Wow. Times, they are a-changin’.
Although…last I checked, Michael Bay is still the director of Transformers, and Dave Nonis is still GM of the Leafs. (If you’re wondering, Bay’s first installment in the Transformers series came out in 2007, while Nonis joined the Leafs in 2008. Not sure what that means, but I figured you wanted to know).
The more things change…
The “LeBron James” Award (given to the superstar player who is coming home to help end a terrifyingly long championship drought) : Steven Stamkos.
Just kidding.
That one’s for the 2016 edition.