Bobby Holik's $9 million/year salary

[MS]

In terms of scoring depth, he was the #3 center on the Devils in 2000 and 2001 behind Jason Arnott and Scott Gomez. (Though Holik centered the top PP unit, with Arnott playing point).

Prior to the Arnott trade and Gomez's emergence as a rookie, the Devils did indeed use Holik as a scoring line center, and while he was passable in that role, he wasn't all that great at it.

So call him the best third line center in the league who was capable of filling in on a scoring line if you had nobody better. This is who the Rangers made one of the highest paid players in the league.

He'd finished 1st or 2nd in scoring on a contending team 4 of the previous 6 years. He was clearly a #2 center and a very good one even if his role mutated a bit for awhile when NJ had 3 very good centers and he was taking the toughest minutes to free up Gomez.

 

[brachyrynchos]

In retrospect, it seemed as if they never really had much of a strategy or plan for the team aside from throwing money at the shiniest object available.

Ultimately they just delayed a rebuild of the 1994 squad that they just couldn’t quite let go of.

Yeah, if it doesn't work....spend more. Smith tried to duplicate the success of '94 while he was still there, and Sather pretty much had an open checkbook in NY, way different than his later days with the Oilers. No fault in a retreat with a planned counter attack, but there was no time for that. Like you said, the Rangers threw money around because they could and they just always seemed impatient like they knew no other way.

 

[c9777666]

Considering Holik was a free agent, I’m surprised that other teams didn’t step up and make an offer.

Like, if he was not going to stay with the Devils, why didn’t the rival Flyers make an offer (a team that also spent a lot of offseason money like NYR, but made the playoffs all the time despite also going after older big names) or a Toronto/Colorado/Detroit/Dallas/Washington?

Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten 9 million a year, but he might have been of better use for a team with a better system structure if he got, say, 4-5 million a year on a team that did not throw money around.

And of course the Trottier hiring as Ranger coach did not help matters either!

 

[NyQuil]

Considering Holik was a free agent, I’m surprised that other teams didn’t step up and make an offer.

Like, why didn’t the rival Flyers make an offer (a team that also spent a lot of offseason money like NYR, but made the playoffs all the time despite also going after older big names) or a Toronto/Colorado/Detroit/Dallas/Washington?

Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten 9 million a year, but he might have been of better use for a team with a better system structure if he got, say, 4-5 million a year on a team that did not throw money around.

The Leafs went in hard on both players.

Dollars and Sense In signing Bobby Holik and Darius Kasparaitis to big deals, the Rangers paid dearly for intangibles

I remember there being a bidding war and apparently there were numerous competitors according to the article.

 

[Brodeur]

Considering Holik was a free agent, I’m surprised that other teams didn’t step up and make an offer.

Like, if he was not going to stay with the Devils, why didn’t the rival Flyers make an offer (a team that also spent a lot of offseason money like NYR, but made the playoffs all the time despite also going after older big names) or a Toronto/Colorado/Detroit/Dallas/Washington?

In the article that I posted, the Leafs got up to 38.5 mil over 5 years. Dallas gave a lesser offer to Holik (they still had Modano/Turgeon/Arnott) and were reserving their big splash money on Bill Guerin. A lot of those other teams were stacked at center, so they didn't want to pay a huge amount to somebody they'd use as a #3. Colorado had Sakic/Forsberg and Philadelphia had Roenick/Primeau. Sergei Fedorov was going to be UFA after 2002-03 so Detroit was probably saving money with the hopes of extending him (I think they offered 4/40 or 5/50 during the course of that season). Washington opted to sign Robert Lang to try to jumpstart Jagr.

Holik and his agent Mike Gillis were definitely fielding offers.

 

[KingsFan7824]

A free market with a limited supply of talent.

 

[YEM]

Considering Holik was a free agent, I’m surprised that other teams didn’t step up and make an offer.

Like, if he was not going to stay with the Devils, why didn’t the rival Flyers make an offer (a team that also spent a lot of offseason money like NYR, but made the playoffs all the time despite also going after older big names) or a Toronto/Colorado/Detroit/Dallas/Washington?

as good as Holik was [and I was an admirer of his] Flyers of that era had Roenick->Primeau->Handzus @ center
no need

 

[Neutrinos]

If memory serves, rumour was the Leafs made a similar offer to Holik

 

[Brodeur]

Excerpt: Money Players

Gillis phones Holik to brief him and wife Renee on the three offers to date. Holik has a high-pitched voiced that belies his massive frame, and the Middle European habit of talking from his tonsils. His questions for Gillis are incisive and, though several clubs have lowballed or made no offers whatsoever, he betrays no anxiety. "We knew it was not a matter of yes or no," he will say later. "We knew it was just, how good is it going to get? So I was calm."

Although Holik would prefer not to move from his home in New Jersey, there's a feeling that the Leafs will bump their $40-million offer, believing they'll become a Cup contender with him. Then there are the Rangers. "Okay, I'll talk to you after I speak to Glen," says Gillis, winding up the call.

Lamoriello's final offer had matched the $8-million-per-year contract awarded the previous summer to Brodeur, but Gillis had concerns about the deferred portion of the salary. The great Mario Lemieux had been stung by taking deferred money in Pittsburgh, only to see the club slide into bankruptcy. Lemieux took ownership of the Penguins to save his millions. "Who's going to even own the Devils in ten years?" Gillis asked as he sipped a coffee. "What guarantees does that give Bobby?"

Holik agreed: "Lou was always trying to mask it, use deferred money. Mike kept telling him, 'What don't you get? He's not taking deferred money. It's got to be up front.'" Gillis's concerns would be reinforced in early 2003 when the bankruptcy of the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres would jeopardize the deferred money of former players and employees.

 

[NYR94]

I was looking back at the news after this signing and was surprised to read that NJ offered him $41.25 million for five years. Just a bit more than the $41 million Toronto supposedly offered. Holik must have thought he was dreaming with offers like that. He definitely got what he wanted contract-wise. Worked out for Lamoriello anyway when he was able to win a Cup again the following spring after replacing 2 of his top 3 centers (Arnott and Holik) from the 2000 team.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

If memory serves, rumour was the Leafs made a similar offer to Holik

sundin wanted holik on his team the same way
mario wanted kasparaitis, gretzky wanted kasper

 

[Reality Check]

In short: How did Bobby Holik (with the Rangers) make $9 million/year? I've never understood this.

Martin Lapointe's contract was worse as it was straight out of pettiness.

 

[Plural]

I liked him as a Devil. That said,it was a big overpayment for sure.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Considering Holik was a free agent, I’m surprised that other teams didn’t step up and make an offer.

Like, if he was not going to stay with the Devils, why didn’t the rival Flyers make an offer (a team that also spent a lot of offseason money like NYR, but made the playoffs all the time despite also going after older big names) or a Toronto/Colorado/Detroit/Dallas/Washington?

Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten 9 million a year, but he might have been of better use for a team with a better system structure if he got, say, 4-5 million a year on a team that did not throw money around.

And of course the Trottier hiring as Ranger coach did not help matters either!

don’t forget, it’s not just the $$$. he also didn’t even have to move his family.

 

[tony d]

I remember that deal being signed. Didn't like it then and don't like it now. It was deals like this that made me glad we got a salary cap. Holik's a good player but he's not worth 9 million per season.

 

[tom_servo]

As a fan of the cash-poor Penguins back then, the Holik deal signaled that no star player would be affordable again. Yeah the Rangers could afford it but it ruined the market. Thank goodness for the salary cap.

 

[LyNX27]

Rangers fans are thankful for the Salary Cap too. Sather can shoot off into the moon for all we care.

Pretty sure there's a quote floating around somewhere from when Sather was on the Oilers, he essentially stated that if he had the funds of the Rangers he would win the Cup every year... He missed the playoffs with it just about every year...

 

[Stephen]

In a pre-cap world, $9 million wouldn't have held any specific meaning other than if your team could pay for it. The idea of stealing a big third line battle center from your division rival and multiple cup winning New Jersey Devils seemed like a pretty reasonable early 2000s proposition.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

A fool and his money are soon parted. I think Rangers just read it all wrong: “Look, he scores 60 points for the defensive minded devils, he’ll do that and score more in our lineup!” No. He was getting older, the offense the devils had over-relied on Holik, and he was bound to drop off in a different system at an older age. Just the perfect late 90s signing and player- so senseless in hindsight, but “he’s big” added a couple mil in salary back then. Stupid shit like this led to a lockout and a cap because owners can’t be trusted not to be absolute doofs.

 

[Voight]

Pretty crazy $9 million/year for top guys became the norm not that long ago.

IIRC Jagr was making $11 million/year around this time (when Holik was signed) and he was the highest paid. I imagine it drops off quite a bit after Holik.

 

[VanIslander]

He was an elite 3rd line center whom the Rags thought could be very good top-6 forward, as a solid two-way pivot, so they gave him star money.

If he had produced 30 goals a year as the 2nd line center at MSG while maintaining his physical game, the contract could have almost been worth it

This I said on this thread in 2018.

I should have stated my general caveat: DON'T pay Bottom-6 excellent talent top-line money. It never works out.

The Rags, of course, like the Yankees, attract overpaid stars to NY often.

 

[Prsut18]

This contract is one of the reasons the salary cap exists

 

[buffalowing88]

This doesn't feel like a good-faith question.

If you had the money then and you wanted to spend it on a winner, you had good reason. Hindsight is 20/20 and hindsight was like 6-12 months here, but I think you knew the answer before you even asked it.

 

[CharlestownChiefsESC]

I just don't get what Sather (was it him?) was thinking. Someone in the NYR brass obviously decided, 'We're getting this guy no matter what!' as an objective. I wonder if the Devils thought no one would be crazy enough to match their offer-sheet... Well, someone was.

To put this in perspective, they paid a 32-year-old (at youngest!) second-line winger on the decline more than Crosby has been making in salary...

This was purely msg management not Sather. Sather believe it or not wanted to build the farm system up when he got in not buy players he was told to sign fas and not rebuild. Something Neil Smith had been trying to do since right after the cup but had Messier and ownership refusing to let him do it. All these fa Signings weren't Smith nor Sather it was msg management afraid of not selling enough tickets. After the 94 cup they realized wow the Rangers can make money after treating them as a date filler for years.

 

[SillyRabbit]

The list of historically awful Ranger's signings is pretty much a mile long:

Holik
Gomez
Redden
Drury
Kasparaitis
Richards

Just to name a few.