The Wild, Gaborik and Dupuis

[Scholes]

I wasn't sure if I should put this in the hockey thread or not, but anyway...

If some of you don't already know... the Wild's two top scorers from last season, Marian Gaborik and Pascal Dupuis have been holding out since the start of training camp. Virtually no progress has been made with either player and it's starting to get a bit nasty.

Yesterday on a local sports talk radio show Alan Walsh, who represents both Gaborik and Dupuis, called in and had some interesting things to say.

1. No player in the last 20 years (excluding Gretzky, Lemieux and Paul Kariya) has accomplished what Gaborik has accomplished in their first three seasons.

2. Dupuis has scored 15 and 20 goals in the last two seasons and led the team in minutes two seasons ago while earning the lowest salary of any regular player (350,000 dollars).

3. The Wild are sold out for the next two seasons, and they lead the league in merchandise sales.

The Gaborik thing can be taken with a grain of salt, because he was playing on an expansion team it's realistic that he might lead the team in points and goals... it's not excactly if he was playing with Modano and Weight and Guerin or anything.

What gets me is that, while the agent wouldn't really specify the details of Gaborik's offer, he said that it would be a pay cut. He would be making less than what he made last season. That blows my mind that the Wild, who have to be doing alright with money considering their successes in just about everything they do, would low-ball Gaborik to that extent.

Dupuis' offer was something like 550,000 and then 750,000 next season. The agent said they were looking for closer to 750,000 and 950,000 for two years. Players like Ladislav Nagy and David Yvborny are both in that range... and I would rank Dupuis right up there with them.

The Wild, up to this point, have done everything right for their first three seasons in the league. They've resisted blowing bucks on high-priced free-agents and chosen to build from within, and it has been working. Why alienate two of your youngest, brightest stars, as well as risk alienating most of your fiercely loyal fanbase then? To protect yourself in future contract negotiations with other players? I'm pretty sure that everyone in the league would agree that Gaborik is worth whatever he's asking. Mario Lemieux called him the best player in hockey.

I don't know, I guess I just wanted to see what others with an outside view thought of this mess.

[Draft Dodger]

if the numbers are right, we're talking about $200,000 a year difference for Dupuis - that really doesn't sound like a lot of money to me for a franchise that has a ton of income and an ultra-low payroll.

I see the Bruins do this year after year after year - they play hardball with their players like no other team, often for not a large difference in money. While it may help them substantially on the bottom line, what you can't measure is the negative impact it has on fan interest. Fans HATE when owners do this. HATE it. Personally, I don't think it's worth it for a franchise to play hardball like this.

[finkenst]

A nd just think.. the NHL's CBA hasn't even expired yet..

--t,

enjoying hockey while it lasts.

[Ryche]

My guess is Walsh is comparing what Gaborik made this year with incentives to what the Wild are offering for a base salary. If we're comparing apples to apples with the salaries and the Wild are offering less, that's pretty appalling.

I heard Risebrough (the Wild GM) on the same station yesterday(?) and the way he was talking, it didn't sound like they wanted to pay any of their players substantially more than the rest of the team. At least that was how I interpreted his comments.

We're not going to be seeing Gaborik this season. Look forward to a lot of 1-0 games like we saw last night.

[Axxon]

I'll have to say that knowing nothing about hockey I read the title of this thread and figured it was a Lewis Carroll thread or something. :D

[klayman]

Just for Information:

Gaborik made $1.075 million last season. Since he's a 3 year player he is a Type II free agent. By July 30th, the Wild would have had to made a qualifying offer of 10% increase in wage (since Gaborik was below the league average of $1.79 million.) If they didn't Gaborik would be an unrestricted free agent right now. His agent is blowing smoke up everybody's ass. Gaborik might make less money due to bonuses and incentives, but there's no possible way he's taking a pay cut in the salary.

[klayman]

Originally posted by Draft Dodger

I see the Bruins do this year after year after year - they play hardball with their players like no other team, often for not a large difference in money. While it may help them substantially on the bottom line, what you can't measure is the negative impact it has on fan interest. Fans HATE when owners do this. HATE it. Personally, I don't think it's worth it for a franchise to play hardball like this.

Though the reverse holds true as well. I hate players that hold out often for not a large difference in money. I also hate players that expect to break the bank. Players are allowed to break their contracts when they have a surprise 50 goal season and want to up their 4 year measly $1.5 million/year contract they signed the previous season, but owners are handcuffed into paying $5 million/year to the same player who never scores more than 10 goals again.

As a fan of a team that is economically forced to penny pinch, I can honestly say I have never taken the players side in the dispute. Doug Weight, Curtis Joseph, Paul Coffey, Andy Moog, the list goes on, they are all in the same group, and I feel they were all in the wrong to hold out on their club. Weight held out 3 times while he was here in Edmonton. Enough is enough. Yeah, the owners treated the players poorly in the past, but come on, the economics of hockey is out of hand...we're arguing about giving a player (Dupruis) who had one 20 goal season a $1.3 million contract over 2 years and we're upset at the owners about it? Sounds like solid fiscal responsibility to me.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by klayman
Just for Information:

Gaborik made $1.075 million last season. Since he's a 3 year player he is a Type II free agent. By July 30th, the Wild would have had to made a qualifying offer of 10% increase in wage (since Gaborik was below the league average of $1.79 million.) If they didn't Gaborik would be an unrestricted free agent right now. His agent is blowing smoke up everybody's ass. Gaborik might make less money due to bonuses and incentives, but there's no possible way he's taking a pay cut in the salary.

thanks for the money figures, but that's exactly what I thought. I don't know where he got a line like "No player in the last 20 years (excluding Gretzky, Lemieux and Paul Kariya) has accomplished what Gaborik has accomplished in their first three seasons." but if he really said it like that, that's a big load of crap.

I don't know Gaborik at all, yeah I have not followed the NHL much the last 7 or 8 years :) but still I can read a stat line and Gaborik scored 30 goals in his last two seasons (his 2nd and 3rd)and 67 and 65 points. Plenty of players have done better than that in terms of points. To say he led his team is simply a testament to the fact the Wild was an expansion team with some pretty average players...

FM

[Scholes]

Originally posted by FrogMan
I don't know Gaborik at all, yeah I have not followed the NHL much the last 7 or 8 years :) but still I can read a stat line and Gaborik scored 30 goals in his last two seasons (his 2nd and 3rd)and 67 and 65 points. Plenty of players have done better than that in terms of points. To say he led his team is simply a testament to the fact the Wild was an expansion team with some pretty average players...

FM

This is exactly what I was thinking... then when pried about it, he brought up a lot of non-descript stuff, like playoff prowess, prowess vs. rivals, etc. He spun the expansion bit by saying he would have been even more successful on a non-expansion team because he was playing with a bunch of "reclamation projects" his term for junk, I'm guessing.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ryche
We're not going to be seeing Gaborik this season. Look forward to a lot of 1-0 games like we saw last night.[QUOTE]

Unfortunately, I think so too.

It will be interesting to see the how the loyal Wild fans react to this.

EDIT: Finally... 100 posts and JV! It only took me a year and a half!