Sportsnet: Kessel and Leafs won't negotiate in-season

[Deebo]

It's speculation that Kessel wants considerably more money on his next contract than what he's currently earning?

No, that he desires to among the highest paid players in the game.

 

[ErnieLeafs]

 

[Mess]

No, that he desires to among the highest paid players in the game.

If he gets +$7.5 mil he will have a top 10 NHL cap hit salary. If he gets $7.0 mil per he would be in the top 20 overall guaranteed.

Wouldn't top 10 salary = highest paid in the game by default ?

Not much speculation here unless you think he is looking for less than $7.0 mil a season.

Would be great if he was looking for the Zetterberg deal at $6 mil per X 8 years.

 

[Eyedea]

If he gets +$7.5 mil he will have a top 10 NHL cap hit salary. If he gets $7.0 mil per he would be in the top 20 overall guaranteed.

Wouldn't top 10 salary = highest paid in the game by default ?

Not much speculation here unless you think he is looking for less than $7.0 mil a season.

Would be great if he was looking for the Zetterberg deal at $6 mil per X 8 years.

Yeah I wish he agreed to circumventing the cap too, but he's 26 not 29/30. Getting him to agree to a front loaded contract with a total of 5.35 million in the final 3 years is extremely unlikely in my opinion. Seems like he's in that Giroux/E. Staal/Getzlaf/Perry yada yada range regarding cap hit. I hope I'm wrong and he settles in the 7s, but I highly doubt it.

 

[Eb]

If he gets +$7.5 mil he will have a top 10 NHL cap hit salary. If he gets $7.0 mil per he would be in the top 20 overall guaranteed.

Wouldn't top 10 salary = highest paid in the game by default ?

Not much speculation here unless you think he is looking for less than $7.0 mil a season.

Would be great if he was looking for the Zetterberg deal at $6 mil per X 8 years.

I took your post as being THE highest paid in the NHL.

 

[Mess]

I took your post as being THE highest paid in the NHL.

Then what did you take from the word "among" in my post?

 

[Mess]

Yeah I wish he agreed to circumventing the cap too, but he's 26 not 29/30. Getting him to agree to a front loaded contract with a total of 5.35 million in the final 3 years is extremely unlikely in my opinion. Seems like he's in that Giroux/E. Staal/Getzlaf/Perry yada yada range regarding cap hit. I hope I'm wrong and he settles in the 7s, but I highly doubt it.

Steven Stamkos makes $7.5 mil cap average and he perennially scores 50-60 goals as one the best goal scorers in the game as his Rocket Richard trophy suggest.

Pavel Datsyuk makes $7.5 mil cap average and he is regarded as one of the best 2-way players in the game as his perennial Selke trophies and finalist suggest.

Hopefully Kessel doesn't want to be distracted with on season negotiations so he can set his own personal achievements to rival Stamkos for the goal scoring lead this season or Datsyuk for the complete player award and be worthy of asking for their annual $7.5 mil remunerations.

Otherwise his 37 career best goal season or regular negative +/- stats are not comparable to those players he desires to be paid like.

 

[Eb]

Then what did you take from the word "among" in my post?

You never used that word.

 

[Deebo]

If he gets +$7.5 mil he will have a top 10 NHL cap hit salary. If he gets $7.0 mil per he would be in the top 20 overall guaranteed.

Wouldn't top 10 salary = highest paid in the game by default ?

Not much speculation here unless you think he is looking for less than $7.0 mil a season.

Cap hit =/= salary

You can't expect to get comparable cap hits to old style deals. It's an advantage for now for those teams who have deals like that, but they face the possibilites of large penalties in the future or big cap hits for players who's skills may have declined as they approach 40.

If those clubs refuse to sign players to deals with bigger cap hits than their current players on back diving deals, they will not be able to bring in or retain top flight players.

If Kessel signs a deal with a cap hit in the 7.5-8M range, it will be among the highest cap hits today, yes. But as revenues rise and inflation occurs, future players hitting UFA will get bigger deals.

Would be great if he was looking for the Zetterberg deal at $6 mil per X 8 years.

That's a pretty dishonest way to describe the Zetterberg deal.

Zetterberg signed a deal that pays him an average of 7,581,250 over the first 8 years of his deal. The final 4 years pay him an average of 3,087,075. His deal was also signed 4.5 years ago. The Red Wings will either have an 6M cap hit for a 38-40 year old Zetterberg or have him retire early and face the recapture penalty of up to 5.083M for those years.

Cap hits matter to fans and GMs, actual money is what matters to players and agents.

 

[Deebo]

Steven Stamkos makes $7.5 mil cap average and he perennially scores 50-60 goals as one the best goal scorers in the game as his Rocket Richard trophy suggest.

RFA contract

Pavel Datsyuk makes $7.5 mil cap average and he is regarded as one of the best 2-way players in the game as his perennial Selke trophies and finalist suggest.

8.5 average over the next 2 years and 5.5 when he is 38 years old.


I get the feeling that these are things you know but are being intentionally obtuse.

 

[Mess]

You never used that word.

I stand corrected

"Kessel's desires of being one of the highest paid"

Although the meaning is the same.

 

[Mess]

Cap hits matter to fans and GMs, actual money is what matters to players and agents.

Our new GM has played hard ball with Bozak, Kadri and Franson on their contracts because he was doing what is BEST for the team not the player.

Since cap hits matter to GM's hopefully Nonis continues to get players under contract to deals that are not detrimental to the team and its competitiveness.

Kessel should go out and have a BIG year if he wants to get paid among the best in the NHL.

 

[Eyedea]

Our new GM has played hard ball with Bozak, Kadri and Franson on their contracts because he was doing what is BEST for the team not the player.

Since cap hits matter to GM's hopefully Nonis continues to get players under contract to deals that are not detrimental to the team and its competitiveness.

Do you expect the salary cap to fall in these next 10 years? I hardly see signing Kessel at 8x8 as detrimental to the team. There will be several other players in the next upcoming years that will be up in the 7s and 8s which is why many GMs are banking on long term extensions for budding superstars at an early age (Tavares, Hall, etc).

 

[Mess]

Do you expect the salary cap to fall in these next 10 years? I hardly see signing Kessel at 8x8 as detrimental to the team. There will be several other players in the next upcoming years that will be up in the 7s and 8s which is why many GMs are banking on long term extensions for budding superstars at an early age (Tavares, Hall, etc).

Well my examples of Stamkos and Datsyuk cap hits at $7.5 mil are from teams in Leafs own division and competing for the same playoff spots.

I guess one could say teams like TB and Detroit will have a competitive advantage over our Leafs because they have star players that contribute more and cost less Cap then Leafs with Kessel will.

Since everyone is competing for the same playoff spots annually with the same Cap salary limits looks like Nonis is at a disadvantage with the Kessel situation by being forced to overpay his own players.

 

[TeamBester]

Steven Stamkos makes $7.5 mil cap average and he perennially scores 50-60 goals as one the best goal scorers in the game as his Rocket Richard trophy suggest.

Pavel Datsyuk makes $7.5 mil cap average and he is regarded as one of the best 2-way players in the game as his perennial Selke trophies and finalist suggest.

Hopefully Kessel doesn't want to be distracted with on season negotiations so he can set his own personal achievements to rival Stamkos for the goal scoring lead this season or Datsyuk for the complete player award and be worthy of asking for their annual $7.5 mil remunerations.

Otherwise his 37 career best goal season or regular negative +/- stats are not comparable to those players he desires to be paid like.

Love how you ommited that he has been in the top 7 in the scoring the last two years, how much is that worth, is that not enough? How long should a player be among the best scoreres to be paid like one? Wonder where he woull land in scoring since the Allstar game?

 

[TeamBester]

Don't tell me you see him as just a goal scorer?

That's so like 2010.

 

[Deebo]

Our new GM has played hard ball with Bozak, Kadri and Franson on their contracts because he was doing what is BEST for the team not the player.

Since cap hits matter to GM's hopefully Nonis continues to get players under contract to deals that are not detrimental to the team and its competitiveness.

Kessel should go out and have a BIG year if he wants to get paid among the best in the NHL.

Another post illustrating how little interst you have in actual discussion.

 

[daveleaf]

Hopefully this get resolved before Christmas and everyone can move forward. Paying Kessel 7-7.5 is going to hurt a lot less then what the return will be for him if they try and trade him. Good or bad we are stuck with him.

 

[pspot]

if he signs for 8+ he'll regret it

obviously not that he's making so much but the expectations for a player in that level will be trouble

take whatever media attention/scrutiny he gets now but minus fan support

 

[Leaf Lander]

Kessel is leaving the leafs. He even says that ufa gives you a chance to play where you want. Trade him in between Dec n Feb.

 

[Deebo]

if he signs for 8+ he'll regret it

obviously not that he's making so much but the expectations for a player in that level will be trouble

take whatever media attention/scrutiny he gets now but minus fan support

If I was Kessel and I was worried about that, I'd just sign elsewhere rather than take less money than the market will bear because some fans and media don't seem to understand the difference between cap hits and salary or RFA contracts and UFA contracts.

 

[Rob11]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if Nonis came to Kessel's people on Christmas Eve, with a contract drafted up that was for _______ million for _______ years, I don't think Kessel would be like "nah, waiting for July."

You'd think so but no.

People don't make decisions about the next 8 years of their life 7-10 months in advance. Kessel has no idea what his life could bring him by next summer. Why would you make a commitment that far ahead?

He knows hes getting paid big bucks. Making a decision that far in advance isn't something I would do either.

What if he met a girl that lived in another city? What if he goes somewhere during the season and enjoys the city so much he wants to play hockey there?

I'm sure he plans on playing in Toronto but those are what if's that most people think about.

 

[ErnieLeafs]

I just want to get him signed, so we can go about finding a pivotal piece or two, to get us over the hump.

 

[Deebo]

People don't make decisions about the next 8 years of their life 7-10 months in advance. Kessel has no idea what his life could bring him by next summer. Why would you make a commitment that far ahead?

This offseason alone Kris Letang, Dustin Brown and Patrice Bergeron made commitments to their current teams that far ahead.

 

[ACC1224]

You'd think so but no.

People don't make decisions about the next 8 years of their life 7-10 months in advance. Kessel has no idea what his life could bring him by next summer. Why would you make a commitment that far ahead?

He knows hes getting paid big bucks. Making a decision that far in advance isn't something I would do either.

What if he met a girl that lived in another city? What if he goes somewhere during the season and enjoys the city so much he wants to play hockey there?

I'm sure he plans on playing in Toronto but those are what if's that most people think about.

This happens all the time, every off season.