NHL’s Topped Out at the Top

Some of the NHL’s biggest names lined up more than two weeks ago for what in most years would have been monstrous paydays, but an eerie thing happened on their way to lifetime salary security -- nothing.

Players who expected huge contract offers after the July 1 start of the free-agency period have been hit with plodding salary negotiations, a product of a quickly changing climate that favors phrases such as “cost certainty” and “sorry, not this summer.”

The most affected players are the point-scorers, the high-churning forwards who bring the fans out of their seats -- but apparently not the general managers and owners out of theirs.

Right wing Ziggy Palffy has been twisting in the breeze after rejecting the Kings’ three-year, $19.5-million offer and electing free agency. A handful of teams are interested, but no deal. The Kings have since pulled their offer off the table.

Center Pavol Demitra was sprung free after the St. Louis Blues declined to offer him a one-year, $6.5-million contract that would have kept him around. No one else has picked up the tab.

Alexei Zhamnov and Peter Bondra, aging but still able to score, are waiting to hear from anybody willing to approach the $4.5 million they each made last season.

Brett Hull trails only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe in career goals, but no team has come close to offering the $5 million he made last season.

Pavel Bure and his $10-million salary of last season? Good luck.

It has become a free-agent world of Curtis Browns and Richard Matvichuks, dependable veterans who come with affordable price tags. The richest contract so far has been the Kings’ four-year, $12.6-million deal with former Calgary Flame center Craig Conroy.

In contrast, Sergei Fedorov signed a five-year, $40-million contract last July with the Mighty Ducks and Derian Hatcher signed a five-year, $30-million deal with the Detroit Red Wings. Two years ago, forwards Bill Guerin and Bobby Holik each signed five-year, $45-million contracts.

The reason for the slowdown is the Sept. 15 expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. Owners are pushing for a new cost-conscious system with a hard salary cap such as the one in the NFL. Players want nothing to do with a salary limit per team, rumored to be $35 million.

A stoppage in play is all but certain and the parameters for future salaries are unknown. As such, money is being spent parsimoniously on free agents.

“I think the reason the league got into financial problems was because we were paying these $7-million, $8-million, $9-million contracts,” Philadelphia Flyer General Manager Bobby Clarke said. “We certainly know we can’t do business like we have been. Some of the agents and some of the players are hoping some of these enormous contracts are going to be paid, but I personally don’t think they are.

“The reality is that these top salaries, for us to survive, have to come down.”

Of the 89 prominent forwards who became free agents more than two weeks ago, 18 have been signed. Many have taken pay cuts.

Right wing Mark Recchi made $5 million last season as the Flyers’ leading scorer, but his new contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins pays him $3 million a season for three seasons. Mike Ricci made $3 million last season as a spirited, serviceable forward with the San Jose Sharks, but the offer he took this month was a two-year, $3.5-million deal with the Phoenix Coyotes, a 42% pay cut.

Even usually free-spending teams have sewn shut their deep pockets.

The Red Wings, owners of a $77.8-million payroll last season, have yet to sign a player from another team. The New York Rangers have been suspiciously quiet, even after shedding more than $20 million in salary at March’s trade deadline. The Dallas Stars have dimmed, burdened by nearly $31 million of contract ballast next season for aging stars Mike Modano, Pierre Turgeon, Sergei Zubov and Guerin.

All it takes is one big-name signing to set the market, with others theoretically falling in line after that. But who will set the price by knocking over the first domino? It’s anybody’s guess.

“Teams are looking over each others’ shoulders to see who’s going to make the first move,” said Los Angeles-based agent Pat Brisson, who has Fedorov and Luc Robitaille among his clients. “There’s a lot of players in the same cluster between the $4-million and $6-million range. I believe at the right time they’ll go, but no one’s rushing yet.

“It’s like the real estate market and the stock market. We don’t know the landscape of the market next year. Some of the players want to wait too. They might have interesting offers, but they want to see the landscape. They may want to play in Europe. Teams don’t want to rush and players don’t want to either.”

The active teams in the free-agent market are signing affordable players who fill specific needs.

The Chicago Blackhawks went for character players, plucking Brown from the San Jose Sharks and Matthew Barnaby from the Colorado Avalanche, both getting slight raises to about $1.7 million a season. The Kings signed Conroy and the Minnesota Wild took Brian Rolston because of their need for playmaking centers. The Atlanta Thrashers acquired two modestly priced defensemen -- Jaroslav Modry from the Kings via free agency and Niclas Havelid in a trade with the Mighty Ducks -- to shore up their leaky blue line.

“When I see some of these signings, like L.A. with Conroy, teams have added a certain need,” Mighty Duck General Manager Al Coates said. “I sense that there’s a lot more of that kind of analysis going on than anything else. I don’t think teams are nearly as concerned about the flamboyancy or the spin they might get out of signing a big-name player.”

Other teams are rewarding their own players by keeping them around.

The Toronto Maple Leafs re-signed goalie Ed Belfour and forwards Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts the day before the key veterans would have become unrestricted free agents. The Philadelphia Flyers re-signed their top playoff performer, center Keith Primeau, to a four-year, $17-million contract two weeks before free agency began.

But for now, Palffy, Demitra, Zhamnov, Bondra and the rest of the point-a-game free agents are spectators, awaiting that first agreeable contract offer.

“It’s taken us quite a few years to figure this out, but over the course of 82 games, a $2-million player can be just as valuable as an $8-million or $9-million player,” Clarke said.

“The guy killing a penalty can be just as valuable as the guy scoring a goal on the power play. There just really shouldn’t be such an imbalance between the guys at the top and the guys at the bottom.

“We’re all still signing players, but we’re getting them at more reasonable prices.”