The Fedorov Lesson: You Can Pay Now, or Pay More Later

You can pay your stars now, or you can cry in your beer and blame someone else for your problems later.

That was true for the New York Rangers, who were surprised when Mark Messier signed a huge contract with Vancouver last summer; that was true for the Colorado Avalanche, who sat by and watched the Messier-less Rangers hand an ungodly offer sheet to Joe Sakic; it was true for the Tampa Bay Lightning, which lost Chris Gratton to the Philadelphia Flyers; and now it’s true for the Detroit Red Wings, who refused to pay the price--a now-bargain $5.5 million--last September for Sergei Fedorov and then watched the Carolina Hurricanes step in and give the free-agent center a six-year, $38 million offer sheet.

“Carolina could never get a player like that just by signing him and think we would take five No. 1 draft picks,” Red Wings Coach Scotty Bowman says. “I don’t know what they were thinking. They should be out trying to make trades.”

The Red Wings can say their decision to match Fedorov’s offer sheet was a no-brainer now that the prodigal son is back in the lineup and the team needs only to overcome a small chemistry problem. But it was never that easy.

Back on November 11, I remember joining several reporters in a conversation with Red Wings G.M. Ken Holland, only a few hours before the first Detroit-Colorado meeting of the season at Joe Louis Arena. The discussion eventually got around to Fedorov.

“We compare him to certain players,” Holland said of Fedorov, “and his people compare him to others, whom we obviously think are not at the same level.”

I asked Holland: “Who are these players you and his agent, Mike Barnett, are comparing?”

“I’m not going to say,” he said in a huff.

When I contacted Barnett, he revealed he was using Sakic, who had just signed a $21 million, three-year contract with Colorado, as his comparison.

I suggested to Barnett he was aiming too high if he was shooting for a $7 million per year deal. He said he would take $6 million, but that Holland was trying to low-ball Fedorov at $4.5 million. That appeared to be true considering the $7 million Sakic got and the $6 million Messier, at age 36, was handed by the Canucks.

“As long as Steve Yzerman ($5.08 million) is here, he will be the highest-paid player on the Red Wings,” Holland said, getting even more perturbed with my questioning.

All that six months of Red Wings’ posturing has produced is name-calling and finger-pointing in the locker room and alienation of Fedorov with Detroit fans--who half booed and half cheered in his first game back against the Florida Panthers.

And to what end? Fedorov will get at least $16 million this season (maybe as much as $28 million if the Red Wings make it to the Western Conference finals for the fourth consecutive year) and an average of $6.33 million over six years. That’s more than $1 million higher than Yzerman is getting and the bottom line is that the Red Wings won’t be able to find any more excuses when Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and Nicklas Lidstrom come looking for increases. They blew it. No one else.

And forget them making a run at a veteran defenseman like Ulf Samuelsson or Uwe Krupp. Detroit’s payroll, like Colorado’s after signing Sakic, more likely will take a hit than add a salary down the stretch.

Give the Red Wings players credit for resiliency after the horrific loss of defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov in a limousine accident last summer and the holdout of Fedorov. They showed the heart of the champions they are. And now, talent-wise, they are much closer to repeating as champions with Fedorov back in the lineup.

Forget the talk about Fedorov being moody and the negative comments that have been uttered by some of his teammates.

“The last time we played a game with Sergei, we won the Stanley Cup together,” Shanahan says. “That’s a bond you have forever.”

Says Panthers right winger Dino Ciccarelli, a former Red Wing: “People will forgive him if he plays hard. It’s up to Sergei to win them back.”

But this signing sends a clear message that goes beyond the Red Wings and the Hurricanes’ creative attempt to get a franchise player. The salary bar has just gone up again. And Carolina’s effort to pirate a key player serves notice that any bottom-tier team has a 50-50 chance at a key free agent if it structures an offer sheet the right way.

“There’s no consolation prize,” Hurricanes G.M. Jim Rutherford says. “This time we didn’t get the prize.” But maybe next time, eh Jimmy?

Sakic and Fedorov jumped right past $4 million per year to nearly $7 million, so could Dallas Stars center Mike Modano double his $3.5 million salary?

“That’s stuff to worry about in the summer,” Modano says. “But it makes for good reading.”

Modano looks pretty smart now for refusing a six-year, $26 million offer from the Stars last summer. It’s clear the Stars know the clock is ticking toward July 1 and free agency. They can pay Modano now--or pay him more later.