Owners Assume Frugal Posture

By this time last year, the second day of free agency, the New York Rangers had signed center Bobby Holik to a five-year, $45-million contract and were closing in on a deal with rugged defenseman Darius Kasparaitis for $25.5 million over six years.

The Mighty Ducks had signed Adam Oates to a two-year, $7-million deal, although they hedged on the second year and stipulated it would be automatic only if they made the playoffs and he reached an undisclosed point total. (They were unsure on the first point but confident on the latter, although the reverse proved true and they inadvertently saved themselves $3.5 million.)

A year ago today, the Dallas Stars were about to announce they’d signed power forward Bill Guerin for $45 million over five years and agreed to pay defenseman Philippe Boucher $9.3 million over four years. The Toronto Maple Leafs were completing a two-year, $13.5-million agreement with goalie Ed Belfour, while the Detroit Red Wings were crowing about having lured Curtis Joseph from Toronto for $24 million over three years. They were so happy, they gave him a no-trade clause.

Two years ago, on the first day free agents could shop themselves to the highest of many bidders, Pierre Turgeon signed with Dallas for $32.5 million over five years and a no-trade clause, and Jeremy Roenick got a five-year, $36.5-million deal in Philadelphia. He promptly promised Flyer executives they’d never regret it.

Who’s sorry now?

Years of lavish spending unsupported by matching revenue growth have come to a screeching halt. On Tuesday, the first day of free agency, the usual clamor was more like a murmur as teams anxiously waited to see who would make the first big, market-setting move -- and just how tight general managers will cinch their belts in the wake of Commissioner Gary Bettman’s proclamations the league’s economic system is broken and can be fixed only with an infusion of frugality.

The Flyers made the only notable move Tuesday by signing goalie Jeff Hackett to a two-year, $6-million deal, nothing that changed the balance of power in the NHL. Otherwise, the silence was deafening.

No one signed Paul Kariya, who became an unrestricted free agent when the Ducks declined to make a $10-million qualifying offer and relinquished his rights. No one signed Sergei Fedorov, a splendid two-way forward who has played on three Stanley Cup-winning teams in Detroit but has rejected a four-year, $40-million offer.

Nor were there takers for impact defenseman Derian Hatcher. He might be the first significant signing because physical defensemen are at such a premium, but he’s not likely to find pots of gold at his feet. One pot, maybe, but no more.

“The thing right now is nobody knows what the landscape is,” said Don Baizley, the agent for Kariya and fellow unrestricted free agent Teemu Selanne. “That’s what we’re all looking to find out.”

The landscape looks bleak.

Apparently, general managers have seen enough red ink to decide -- separately or together -- they won’t continue to throw money around. They’re economizing on such big-ticket players as Fedorov and Hatcher, and cutting corners by not making qualifying offers to such lesser lights as Marc Chouinard and Kevin Sawyer of the Ducks, Michal Grosek and Ian Moran of the Bruins, Cale Hulse and Rem Murray of Nashville, Oleg Tverdovsky of New Jersey and Trevor Letowski in Vancouver.

In the past, such players would have gotten qualifying offers without a thought. Instead, they were jettisoned with no return but general managers’ grim satisfaction at knowing they’re in better shape for the salary cap or luxury tax they expect to wring out of labor negotiations next year.

“You would have to have been asleep for 20 years not to be expecting this,” Canuck General Manager Brian Burke told the Vancouver Sun. “I have been predicting this for 12 months. The fact is if you believe a new [economic system] is coming, you need to be able to have a budget you can operate under that situation.”

King President Tim Leiweke, who has frequently condemned the Rangers’ extravagance and predicted financial disaster if payrolls continued to grow faster than revenues, declined to discuss the free-agent market. He said through a spokesman he’s “not surprised” some teams didn’t give qualifying offers to players or that no significant signings were announced Tuesday.

The Ducks’ decision to part with Kariya on Monday was a gamble by General Manager Bryan Murray, but each quiet day in the marketplace will give Murray more leverage and increase the chances Kariya will return at a lower salary.

Had the Ducks let Kariya loose a year ago, he probably would have turned his back on them -- and he would have had half a dozen lucrative alternatives. Not this summer. Bettman has scared too many club executives too deeply, and few teams will take on a hefty contract that could put them over a cap limit two years from now.

Also, the Ducks are in a better position to woo Kariya than they were a year ago. After coming within a victory of winning the Cup, they can tell him they’ve built a winning foundation. They can sell the good weather and the fact Kariya owns a home not far from the Arrowhead Pond, so what’s the point of moving elsewhere only to have the NHL shut down for months or even a year if labor negotiations stall?

If players underestimated owners’ solidarity or willingness to lock up their checkbooks, they got a rude awakening Tuesday. The pots of gold at the end of the rainbow are gone, never to return.