Changing Landscape Of The Nhl
By Mark Wright, Thu Dec 8th

Changing Landscape of the NHL

The changing face of the NHL is very prominent as the firstregular season play begins for the 2005-2006 season. Big namedplayers have left big named teams for the previously has-beendoorstops of the NHL. It is amazing that sports like baseballhave not seen the light, and it is unfortunate that hockey hadto learn this lesson the very hard way.

We now have players like Paul Kariya playing in a market wherethere are only 1.2 million people. For Kariya, though, it is agreat move. Nashville has some talent on its team, and embeddedcoach, and a decent place to live. Money is going to go a lotfarther in Nashville than it did in the extremely pricey Anaheimor even Colorado. On top of that if Kariya has a few good years,then he has a golden ticket for the rest of his life inNashville. He will be a celebrity way past the end of hisplaying days and will likely never have to pick up a check thereever again.

It is amazing the spending spree teams went on that previouslywould not spend an extra nickel to buy new uniforms. Teams likethe recently bankrupt Pittsburgh Penguins, hanging by a stringEdmonton Oilers and the previously mentioned NashvillePredators, are just a few who have had the flexibility to makemoves. On the opposite side of the puck you have the establisheddominant teams like Detroit, Colorado, New Jersey and New Yorkwho are facing a significant crisis due to previous signings.

The bottom line is the players cut of the pie droppedsignificantly, some 25% in some estimates. However, the resultis going to be better for the league, the teams and ultimatelythe players. Having more teams capable of competing for moreplayers, even with the caps in place is going to be good for theleague. Baseball should take note.

Written by Mark Wright © 2005 Mark Wright - Dalstars.com

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Hockey Canada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.