There are probably a few Senators fans out there wondering how the heck the team is going to be able to pay defenceman Wade Redden all that money he “won” in salary arbitration the other day.
Or goaltender Patrick Lalime, who will go from $550,000 (all terms US) last season to $1.1 million next season.
A legitimate question.
Redden was awarded $2.8 million and $3 million over the next two years, about $800,000 more than the Senators wanted to pay him. That’s a raise — just for this season — of $850,000.
Given the nature of the system, once Dan McGillis was given a deal by the Philadelphia Flyers that pays him about $3 million per year, the inevitable comparables, as the general managers and agents like to call them, were going to come into play and Redden was going to get his money.
The fact of the matter is general manager Marshall Johnston looks like he’s done a good job of shedding some salary and giving the club a shot at having the resources needed to sign the players it wants to sign, like Redden and Lalime.
The Senators saved a lot with the trading of Alexei Yashin and winger Andreas Dackell and the departure of unrestricted free agents Rob Zamuner and Jason York (they also let Mike Sillinger go, but he joined the club late last season, so his salary wasn’t really in the mix). The departures of those four freed up about $8 million.
The raises earned by Redden ($850,000), Lalime ($1.1 million) and Magnus Arvedson ($300,000) work out to about $2.2 million. Curtis Leschyshyn also joined the club late in the season and he’s pretty much replacing York on the roster for this year, costing the club about $400,000 more.
While Dackell left, Bill Muckalt came in from the Islanders in the Yashin deal, saving the Senators a little bit on that swap.
What it comes down to so far is the big raises have eaten up about $3 million of the $8 million available. The Senators have been boosting their payroll by about 10% a year, so that means majority owner Rod Bryden was willing to throw about another $3 million on the pile (but that was before season-ticket sales went south, so who knows how much will actually be added).
Usual raises
That 10% boost pretty much just covered the standard raises due players with existing contracts.
Johnston still must sign captain Daniel Alfredsson, winger Marian Hossa and defenceman Zdeno Chara, who are all looking for big, big raises. Alfredsson is looking for about $3.5 million per year. Hossa, one of the league’s legitimate rising superstars, is going to get a huge bump from the $675,000 he made last year and Chara, who made $632,000 with the Islanders last year, is in line to at least double his money.
If Jason Spezza, the second pick overall in June, makes the club, he will also have to be signed to a deal in the $1.2-million range. It sounds intimidating, but because of Johnston’s cost-cutting earlier this summer, there should be enough wiggle room to keep everybody happy.
He has taken what looked like an almost impossible situation at the beginning of the summer and turned it into merely uncomfortable. While it sounds like the Senators payroll has been skyrocketing with all those incredible raises, the fact of the matter is Johnston’s actions have kept the bottom line under control.
He’s the guy who’s probably earned the biggest raise in the organization.
August 18, 2001
