Crosby to play pre-season game 9-29 @ Ottawa

[Jaded-Fan]

I was not sure if this was appropriate for this board or would need to be moved. But I wanted to give a head's up to canadian fans who might want to see him in what may be his first pro game. The source is the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. I would link it but I am using a PDA phone to post this and that would take too much juggling. Perhaps someone else can link it. From a business of hockey standpoint the article does clear up one thing that has been wrongly said about the Pens. Ken Sawyer - the Pens' President - said 'We're not going to be at the top (of the Cap). We don't think that we need to be. But I am certain that we will spend . . . in the middle to upper middle is my guess.' For those who said otherwise on these boards you now have it from the horses mouth. That says something like a thirty-five million payroll. Tell me what FA you can buy when you have twenty six million to spend on 19 players and two will be playing for the rookie cap? I do not think that the Pens will be competing for a cup for a while but they will make some noise and be fun to watch next year.

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[bcrt2000]

upper middle = $31-33M, thats pretty decent, would be where most teams fall.. they can ice a very competitive team considering they have a lot of young talent who WONT be expensive

I think people will be surprised at how well pittsburgh will play next year if CP does a good job in using his money wisely ... with the amount of $$ he has to spend, he could build a team that wins the division

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

upper middle = $31-33M, thats pretty decent, would be where most teams fall.. they can ice a very competitive team considering they have a lot of young talent who WONT be expensive

I think people will be surprised at how well pittsburgh will play next year if CP does a good job in using his money wisely ... with the amount of $$ he has to spend, he could build a team that wins the division

nah i don't think they are even close to nj/philly level yet. pens offense will be awesome, but even if everything goes right i see them as a #7-8 seed team.

 

[EricBowser]

Not to be too critical but what does New Jersey have on defense?

An old concussed Scott Stevens will have a hard time being an anchor on a team that will likely lose Brian Rafalski and Scott Niedermayer to free agency.

Devils will have their shots because of Martin Brodeur but how many superstars or talented players want to play in Swampland after Robinson and Lamorello said they wouldn't change their style of hockey.

Why do you think Niedermayer wants the franchise max of $7.8 million to return?

And if I'm New Jersey, I would be very worried about Patrik Elias' battle with hepatitis.

Devils have 10 players signed for $15.5 million leaving $23.5 million to sign RFAs Elias, Jeff Friesen, Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Jan Hrdina, Viktor Kozlov, Jamie Langenbrunner, Paul Martin, David Hale, Sean Brown, and Colin White.

Then try to resign UFAs Niedermayer, Rafalski, Stevens, Corey Schwab, and Tommy Albelin.

Plus fill-in any holes with in-house talent and free agents.

Good luck.

....I like the Flyers situation even better, or not, lol

They now have 11 players signed for $22.51 million, if you include Eric Desjardins player option of $2.28 million.

Leaving $16.49 million or so to resign RFAs Patrick Sharp, Dennis Seidenberg, Robert Esche, Simon Gagne, Kim Johnsson, Branko Radivojevic, and Radovan Somik.

Doubtful they even try to bring back any of the UFAs like Sean Burke, Jeff Hackett, Claude Lapointe, Vladimir Malakhov, and Alexei Zhamnov.

And Clarke already said he was going to sign 2003 picks Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, so there's another two million or so.

...I think I like Pittsburgh's financial situation a whole lot better
7 players signed for $5.59 million leaving $23.5 to $26.5 million to spend on 16 players.

Pens money can go a whole lot further because of the young talent to sign like Crosby, Malkin, Malone, and Koltsov. If Whitney and Fleury make the team, that's even more cheap talent.

Kovalev is expected to sign a semi-"cheap" contract around $3 million per for 3-years and Lemieux already said, he won't be the highest paid player on the team anymore, so he's probably going to take closer to Recchi's $2.28 salary than $3-5 million.

But having typed all this, I still won't expect many out of market fans or media to under the financial situation in Pittsburgh.