Bobby Holik's $9 million/year salary

[K Fleur]

A defensively sound 60 point center is an attractive asset to every team in the history of the sport.

Add in that Holik was 6’4 in the time when GM’s cared the most about that and it’s easier to see how he got that contract.

 

[kaiser matias]

Also worth noting that it wasn't as if the Rangers came out of nowhere with this offer. Holik was fielding similar offers from multiple teams, and while he went to New York he easily could have gone to Toronto or Dallas (both of whom made offers to him).

This was discussed in the first chapter of Bruce Dowbiggan's Money Players: The Amazing Rise & Fall of Bob Goodenow and the NHL Players Association. This was also published on ESPN, so you can take a read here:

Money Players: The Education of Bobby Holik

 

[reckoning]

This contract is one of the reasons the salary cap exists

In today's salary cap era we have Jeff Skinner making $9 million a year for 8 years.

The Holik contract was an effective scapegoat to wave in front of the fans and media to get them to support a lockout, but if it never happened it wouldn't have changed anything.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Glen Sather threw money at everyone. Didn't lead to any success.

 

[67 others]

lol. Remember the front loaded $17 million dollar year 1, $22 million total for 3 years offersheet the NYR sent Sakic's way in the late 90's. Of course he freaking signed it. And folks were mad. But what is he supposed to do? Say "oh no, Im sorry you are offering me too much money"?

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I Don’t remember much about the early 2000s era of hockey, but wasn’t Holik considered an excellent shutdown centerman?

he’s mostly a reason why the cap is implemented. I remember Kariyas qualifying offer to retain him as an RFA for Anaheim was like 10+ million.

 

[Brodeur]

Not to say that the contract wasn't an overpay, but I think some are underselling Holik by calling him a 3rd line forward. The late 90's / early 00's Devils were deep and could roll four lines fairly evenly. Just going by ice time:

1998-99: Holik (17:34), Arnott (15:24), Pederson (15:19), Carpenter (15:17), Morrison (13:55)
1999-00: Arnott (17:05), Holik (16:53), Gomez (16:21), Morrison (16:09), Madden (11:40) -- Gomez spent most of the season on LW before shifting to center after the Morrison trade
2000-01: Arnott (16:12), Holik (15:49), Gomez (15:46), Madden (15:35)
2001-02: Holik (17:42), Arnott (17:13), Gomez (16:46), Nieuwendyk (16:22), Madden (15:36) -- Gomez spent the second half of the season on Holik's wing

Not saying he was a #1 center by any traditional means, but perhaps just more of a 2nd line guy who you could match up against an opposing #1 center and provide some secondary offense. Since Holik was usually a 55-60% faceoff guy, you could use him on the top unit to win an offensive zone draw and be a net front presence. The Devils quietly had the #3 and #1 PP in 1999-00 and 2000-01 with Holik on the top unit.

Like most Devils fans, I wanted to retain Holik but when it was rumored that he'd be getting 8+ mil on the open market that was a bit too much.

 

[voyageur]

I Don’t remember much about the early 2000s era of hockey, but wasn’t Holik considered an excellent shutdown centerman?

he’s mostly a reason why the cap is implemented. I remember Kariyas qualifying offer to retain him as an RFA for Anaheim was like 10+ million.

He was a top shutdown centre before the NHL rule changes. A player who thrived in the checking and trap era of hockey, which is about 1995 to 2004, also the time when salaries started rapidly escalating. You look at Detroit, who had $16 million in goalies alone, and the Rangers being over $50 million in payroll over the bottom 5 teams (Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Atlanta, Florida and Nashville) in 2003-2004 and that wasn't tenable, as every small market would essentially become a feeder market for the big spending owners in free agency, which would get further exasperated by stupid owners overpaying. It created a two tier league, which still gave some respectability to the middle of the pack, but disadvantaged (and potentially jeopardized) the small markets, with owners who wouldn't pay to operate with substantial losses.

I think the Rangers Devils rivalry made for some overpayments, like Holik. But that's also the name of the game. You win you get rewarded. Holik was the Devils 2nd leading scorer the season he signed with the Rangers. He was also the leading scorer for the Rangers the year he was bought out.

It's crazy that Kariya went from a $10 million player to signing for $1.2 million in an effort to win the Cup on a stacked Colorado team, in a year when the Cup ended up between Calgary and Tampa, who were so far off the radar...

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

It's crazy that Kariya went from a $10 million player to signing for $1.2 million in an effort to win the Cup on a stacked Colorado team, in a year when the Cup ended up between Calgary and Tampa, who were so far off the radar...

It's funny. I remember when and where I was when that signing went down. Kariya had gone from my favorite player to enemy number 1.

 

[Brodeur]

It's funny. I remember when and where I was when that signing went down. Kariya had gone from my favorite player to enemy number 1.

The thing that always sticks out to me was how quickly that happened. I was there for Kariya's memorable Game 6 performance which would have become an All-Time highlight (arguably already is) had Anaheim prevailed in Game 7. Then three weeks later he's persona non grata. My cousin was a huge Kariya fan and was all-in that playoff run then his interest in hockey quickly dissipated with Kariya leaving followed by the lockout. Been trying to get him back into it and touting Trevor Zegras as the most pure skilled Duck since Kariya.

 

[VancouverFanInNYC]

It's funny. I remember when and where I was when that signing went down. Kariya had gone from my favorite player to enemy number 1.

The new CBA caused massive uncertainty at the time and when the Ducks didn't qualify him at $10mm per year, Kariya could sign anywhere he wanted to and chose Colorado to team up with his ex-partner in crime (Teemu Selanne). There was a specific threshold reason the $1.2mm number was chosen as that number also allowed him to be an unequivocal UFA so that Kariya had full flexibility to sign anywhere under the new salary cap framework.

Going back to the topic of Holik, a few other variables that helped:

• Holik was at his prime and the prior years saw him at his very best (shutting down Mario Lemieux, Mats Sundin, etc...)
• The New York Islanders immediately went from a cellar dweller into a pseudo-contender by trading for Yashin + Peca. Peca as a #2 center (despite being more defensive / two-way) gave the Islanders a powerful one-two punch down the middle. They probably envisioned Holik to occupy a Peca-like role
• This was the age of the big centers and Holik was 6'4''... If you wanted to be a competitive, you need a dominant strong center and the Eastern conference had Joe Thornton (6'4''), Vincent Lecavalier (6'4''), Mats Sundin (6'4''), Mario Lemieux (6'4''), Keith Primeau (6'5''), Jason Arnott (6'4''), Eric Lindros (6'4''), Alexei Yashin (6'3''), Radek Bonk (6'3'') et al
• New York hadn't made the playoffs for years despite having one of the highest payrolls in the league with a ton of overpaid stars on the team, due to a lack of grit and defense (which Holik brought). They also had two Rangers legends (Mark Messier and Brian Leetch) on the verge of retirement so there was a sentiment to get them to the playoffs.

 

[Thirty One]

It's crazy that Kariya went from a $10 million player to signing for $1.2 million in an effort to win the Cup on a stacked Colorado team, in a year when the Cup ended up between Calgary and Tampa, who were so far off the radar...

I think Kariya was offered $9 million from Anaheim in lieu of the $10 million qualifying offer. He chose to sign below the league average salary so he would be a Group V UFA instead of a RFA after that year.

Holik's contract is bad, but he was a good player for the Rangers in his short stint, but he wasn't going to age well beyond that. The Devils and Leafs reportedly offered him above $8M per year too: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/bobby-holik-bolts-for-rangers-1.308170