Post by Jazz on Jul 18, 2004 4:38:57 GMT -5
Caution rules off-season as NHL lockout looms[/u][/color]
By PAUL FRIESEN
By this time last summer, Winnipeg-based player agent Don Baizley had already helped broker the deal of the NHL off-season, reuniting stars Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya in a double free-agent signing in Colorado that turned the hockey world on its ear.
A year later, Selanne and Kariya are just two of the many big names still waiting to find a home, unrestricted free agents in what appears to a very restricted market.
After two full weeks of the annual free agent derby, you could build a Stanley Cup contender with the players still available: Glen Murray, Brendan Shanahan, Peter Bondra, Alexei Zhamnov, Alexei Kovalev, Pavol Demitra, Mathieu Schneider, Ziggy Palffy -- and the list goes on.
In a time of year that usually produces a feeding frenzy, we're still on the appetizers.
The uncertainty surrounding next season, and the strong possibility of a lockout, seems to have left nobody in the mood to chow down.
"It has a big impact for people on both sides of the desk, no question about that," Baizley was saying yesterday. "Everybody's more cautious. We don't know what the new rules are going to be."
If the owners get their way in a new collective bargaining agreement, there will be a salary cap in place next season. If the players win the labour war, there could be anything from a luxury tax to no change of any kind in the system.
If neither side budges, we won't see hockey for months.
So while some teams have dished out a few dollars to mid-range players, negotiations with the big-money stars drag on.
Baizley represents some two dozen NHL players, including a handful of unrestricted free agents, including Selanne, Kariya and former Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix defenceman Teppo Numminen.
And while he says there's still plenty of interest in high-end players, teams are obviously reluctant to pull the trigger on deals without knowing what the marketplace is going to look like.
Baizley prefers not to comment specifically on the state of negotiations with any of his clients, or speculate on where they might end up.
But based on last season, you'd think Selanne and Kariya would have a hard time drumming up the kind of money they'd become accustomed to earning.
Both under-performed, and the Avalanche fell far short of the Stanley Cup many predicted for the franchise.
"Their hope was they were going to have a bang-up year where they had tons of fun and a lot of success individually and team-wise," Baizley said. "But sport being sport, it didn't work out that way."
That's one of the beauties of sport: its unpredictability.
And Baizley isn't about to predict what's going to happen in the fall.
He did say there will likely be more players signing contracts to play in Europe in the event of a lockout, the way Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk (Russia) and Boston's Joe Thornton (Switzerland) have.
Interestingly, Baizley, who once represented former Jets Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson in the WHA, says he's getting calls from the new WHA, too.
But he's not about to recommend players make that leap -- at least, not yet.
"At this point I think it's premature," he said. "The WHA, it's just getting itself organized. We'll wait and see if it's going to be a viable operation. That's still to be determined."
Just like almost everything about hockey right now.
link: slam.canoe.ca/Slam040717/col_friesen-sun.html
By PAUL FRIESEN
By this time last summer, Winnipeg-based player agent Don Baizley had already helped broker the deal of the NHL off-season, reuniting stars Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya in a double free-agent signing in Colorado that turned the hockey world on its ear.
A year later, Selanne and Kariya are just two of the many big names still waiting to find a home, unrestricted free agents in what appears to a very restricted market.
After two full weeks of the annual free agent derby, you could build a Stanley Cup contender with the players still available: Glen Murray, Brendan Shanahan, Peter Bondra, Alexei Zhamnov, Alexei Kovalev, Pavol Demitra, Mathieu Schneider, Ziggy Palffy -- and the list goes on.
In a time of year that usually produces a feeding frenzy, we're still on the appetizers.
The uncertainty surrounding next season, and the strong possibility of a lockout, seems to have left nobody in the mood to chow down.
"It has a big impact for people on both sides of the desk, no question about that," Baizley was saying yesterday. "Everybody's more cautious. We don't know what the new rules are going to be."
If the owners get their way in a new collective bargaining agreement, there will be a salary cap in place next season. If the players win the labour war, there could be anything from a luxury tax to no change of any kind in the system.
If neither side budges, we won't see hockey for months.
So while some teams have dished out a few dollars to mid-range players, negotiations with the big-money stars drag on.
Baizley represents some two dozen NHL players, including a handful of unrestricted free agents, including Selanne, Kariya and former Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix defenceman Teppo Numminen.
And while he says there's still plenty of interest in high-end players, teams are obviously reluctant to pull the trigger on deals without knowing what the marketplace is going to look like.
Baizley prefers not to comment specifically on the state of negotiations with any of his clients, or speculate on where they might end up.
But based on last season, you'd think Selanne and Kariya would have a hard time drumming up the kind of money they'd become accustomed to earning.
Both under-performed, and the Avalanche fell far short of the Stanley Cup many predicted for the franchise.
"Their hope was they were going to have a bang-up year where they had tons of fun and a lot of success individually and team-wise," Baizley said. "But sport being sport, it didn't work out that way."
That's one of the beauties of sport: its unpredictability.
And Baizley isn't about to predict what's going to happen in the fall.
He did say there will likely be more players signing contracts to play in Europe in the event of a lockout, the way Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk (Russia) and Boston's Joe Thornton (Switzerland) have.
Interestingly, Baizley, who once represented former Jets Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson in the WHA, says he's getting calls from the new WHA, too.
But he's not about to recommend players make that leap -- at least, not yet.
"At this point I think it's premature," he said. "The WHA, it's just getting itself organized. We'll wait and see if it's going to be a viable operation. That's still to be determined."
Just like almost everything about hockey right now.
link: slam.canoe.ca/Slam040717/col_friesen-sun.html
