The somewhat interesting news in the hockey world yesterday came when the Calgary Flames extended Mark Giordano to a 6-year, $40.5 million extension. The deal will kick in when Giordano turns 32 and will carry him into 2022 when he is 38 years old. Along with that will be a $6.75 million cap hit, which in years 37 and 38 will probably be (Borat voice) NOT good.
So what does that mean?
For one, it negates any kind of P.K. Subban-type contract which Giordano was rumored to be chasing. The second is that it may hopefully set some kind of baseline for Brent Seabrook’s next deal. While Seabrook is also rumored to be chasing a contract of Subban proportions, the Giordano one probably slots in much more favorably.
Both guys are at the same age/contract range; Giordano’s advanced metrics are better than Seabrook’s while Seabrook edges Giordano in the traditional stat line; albeit with more than 200 games played. Seabrook, though, has the playoff pedigree.
As we’re all too familiar, though, this is all meaningless if a player and agent decide they’re worth something and the team disagrees.
On the other hand, I quickly remembered that worrying about cap hits, term lengths and whatever else are a wasted practice right now until the Hawks and the league know what’s going to happen with the little shithead.
Are the Hawks going to be stuck with his cap hit, a la Slava Voynov, while he’s in court? Could be.
Will the Hawks find some sort of loophole to get out of the cap hit while he’s not allowed to play? I suppose it’s not impossible.
What is known is that the Hawks currently sit in organizational purgatory and will remain so for the foreseeable future, thanks to him. And that’s, without question, the least offensive result of this ongoing investigation.
–These started showing up around town yesterday:
Local fans, seeing all the sweet #BlackhawksTrains out there? Tweet a shot with the hashtag and you could win prizes! pic.twitter.com/WeH8004Hur
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) August 25, 2015
Naturally, none of the pictures featured on the Hawks Twitter account showed the little shithead on a train car. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. A quick search of the hashtag revealed trains that featured Hossa, Keith, Toews and Seabrook. I highly doubt there will be any Kane cars out there and it’s interesting how little was being made about this locally and nationally. Especially considering the Hawks threw it out there and didn’t really say if they had to pull his cars out of service one way or the other.
The London Knights felt compelled to issue a statement to announce they were re-arranging the name of one of their training camp squads and that perked everyone up for a second.
I love the lede on this story too. “First EA Sports, now the London Knights.”
Yup, first losing an endorsement from a globally recognized corporation that literally takes money out of his pocket and removes his face from a cover that will be seen by millions. And now, a junior hockey team he played on 10 years ago for minimum wage isn’t using his name on a training camp roster. The shame.
(But really, does something like that really warrant an official announcement from the Knights? They could’ve made that change the day of training camp with nary a peep and maybe 5 people would’ve noticed.)
–As I’m sure you all are desperately waiting to hear, I do have “Fear the Walking Dead” thoughts and I will put those together in a longer prose on Friday. See you all then.
