Had the National Hockey League played last season, Flyers goalie Robert Esche would have earned $775,000 as a starter who got his club within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals the season before.
Esche's salary was rather paltry for a starting goalie on a Cup contender. Then again, no one knew at the start of 2003-04 whether Esche or Sean Burke would be "the guy."
Esche's salary was well under the league average of $1.8 million that season.
Under the new collective-bargaining agreement, however, all NHL salaries were reduced 24 percent coming into this season. Last month, the Flyers sent qualifying offers to their restricted free agents. The pay cuts were included.
Esche was due to get just $647,900, but instead, the Flyers qualified him at $650,000.
If it bothers you that the most important man on the ice - the goaltender - was to be underpaid this season, well, it bothered general manager Bob Clarke, as well.
On the one hand, he had to enforce the rollback on every player under contract, plus those restricted free agents due qualifying offers.
On the other hand, Clarke recognized Esche deserved more money. His numbers in 2003-04 were solid. He was fifth among goaltenders with a 2.04 goals-against average, and his save percentage was .915.
The Flyers had six qualifying offers to make this summer: Esche, Simon Gagne ($2 million), Kim Johnsson ($2.2 million), Branko Radivojevic ($551,760), Dennis Seidenberg ($450,000) and Patrick Sharp ($450,000). All are now under contract.
Sharp actually got a raise from his previous salary of $400,000 because the new NHL minimum salary is $450,000.
After signing Peter Forsberg, Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje last week, Clarke decided that once Esche signed his qualifying offer, he was going to tear it up and give him a new deal.
"Kim Johnsson took us to arbitration last time and got $2.8 million," Clarke said at the time. "The players and league negotiated the [24 percent] rollback. We didn't believe Kim should get more than that [in a qualifying offer].
"We have young players like [Sharp] who have not proven themselves yet. And they ended up getting raises under the new CBA or they would be making less. That's OK, but we won't pay them any more."
Clarke then said the one player who might be able to get more was Esche.
"We are going to give him a little bit more this year," Clarke said at the time. "Normally, we might say, 'We give you more this year, but we want you to sign for this amount next year.' But you really can't do that in this new CBA because it's averaged against the cap."
So Wednesday, Clarke gave Esche a two-year deal that pays him $2 million overall. Esche will earn $1 million this season: $900,000 in salary and $100,000 in a signing bonus. All money counts against the cap.
In a summer of across-the-board rollbacks where every NHL team is holding firm on qualifying offers without a cent more, what Clarke did was both smart and classy. Esche's teammates will notice, too.
Rest assured, there will be no T.O.s at Flyers training camp this fall.
The Cap
Readers have asked how the salary cap works with long-term deals and varying amounts. An example: Columbus re-signed restricted free agent Rick Nash to a five-year, $27 million contract. Nash will earn $3.5 million this season, then $4.5 million, $5.5 million, $6.5 million, finally, $7 million in 2009-10. However, to prevent clubs from front-loading or back-loading deals for cap purposes, Nash's salary each year under the cap will be averaged. Hence, he will cost the Blue Jackets $5.4 million annually against the cap, regardless of what appears on the books or how his paycheck reads.
Lucky number
Flames general manager Darryl Sutter and his son, Brett, were both drafted 179th - 27 years apart. Brett was drafted by his father a few weeks ago in the seventh round at Ottawa. "Wow. That's pretty neat," Darryl told the Canadian Press. "That is weird. Maybe there's some fate there."
Quotable
Former Flyer Alexei Zhamnov, who refused to re-sign as a Flyer, after signing a three-year, $12.3 million deal with Boston: "The [Joe] Thornton line is a pretty good line. I played against those guys when I was in Philly. What I see in this organization is three or four good lines. It's very hard to play against those kinds of teams."
Future considerations
Regarding the trade of Jeremy Roenick, the "future considerations" likely will be based on his performance in Los Angeles and become a draft pick. However, don't be surprised if the Kings are out of the playoff picture come March, and the Flyers need a center because of an injury, to see Roenick come back as those same "future considerations." By March, J.R.'s salary would be down to about $1.8 million. It's a wild theory, but plausible.
On the NHL | Loose pucks
Not that they're desperate to sell tickets, but the Canadiens have decided to give away 500 tickets this season to each of their Tuesday night games... . Stephen Walkom will replace Andy Van Hellemond as the NHL's new director of officiating. At 41, Walkom, who did a respectable job on the ice, is young to make the move to full-time management. He could have stayed on the ice. "With the rule changes that the league has adopted for the upcoming season, we believe that Stephen is ideally suited to provide direction and guidance to our on-ice officials," said Colin Campbell, NHL executive vice president and director of hockey operations. Van Hellemond resigned shortly after the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals after a flap over his borrowing money from fellow officials... . In case you missed it, a record eight U.S. players were selected in the first round of this year's NHL draft. That broke the 1986 record of seven... . Finally, what kept Eric Lindros from being signed so long into free agency? Two things. Foremost, Lindros wanted several million dollars' worth of achievable bonuses for an injured player signing under the new collective-bargaining agreement but failed to qualify - believe it or not - because he hadn't missed enough days (100) in 2003-04. Second, some clubs had issues with his current conditioning and concussion history. In the end, he finally became a Toronto Maple Leaf at $1.55 million for this season. Lindros wanted to be a Leaf five years ago but was traded to the Rangers. A happy, albeit delayed, ending for the Big E.
-Tim Panaccio