Frozen Out – Thoughts On the NHL vs. the NBA’s Free-Agency Period

While I’m primarily a basketball fan, I also am a giant sports nut and thus gave my views, especially concerning my favourite hockey team, the Calgary Flames. However beyond my opinions in regards to which players may have "come out on top" in terms of the deals they received, I also noted just how strange I found the NHL’s free-agent period to be compared with any of the other big three (or big six if you count that Nascar and Golf are more popular than hockey in the States) sports.

In the NBA, NFL and especially in Major League Baseball, small market teams tend to be at a disadvantage, even in leagues with hard or soft salary caps. Yes part of the intent of the soft cap was to help level the proverbial playing field so that all teams in such leagues have the same resources to work with, but no one can argue that a team like the Heat or Mavericks are more favourable destinations for most than say Memphis or Milwaukee based on the lifestyle they can offer players and at times their willingness to spend more than other clubs. This is why even a moribund team like the Knicks still attracts the interest of free-agents because they’ve shown they "fear not the luxury tax" and offer the benefits of playing in a basketball mecca and the world’s most historic basketball market.

However the NHL has become the exact opposite of this!

I couldn’t believe that during TSN’s coverage of the "Free Agent Frenzy," the commentators were offering up explanations as to why players were shunning the Montreal’s and Toronto’s of the league because "so and so doesn’t want to play under intense media scrutiny in these markets."

This just struck me as bizarre, not only because it’s strange in pro-sports to consider Montreal and Toronto as major sporting media hubs but also because when was the last time you heard someone, let alone an athlete, look to go to Los Angeles to escape the media glare!

In fact, several articles recently have touched on the fact that due to the new salary cap situation in hockey, traditional hockey destinations like Montreal and Toronto who were willing to overpay for players (ahem, especially the Leafs) now find themselves at a disadvantage as players aren’t keen on heading to these cities to endure constant critical commentary on their performance when they are no longer being over-compensated for it.

Perhaps this explains some of the random signings by big name players in places like San Jose, and to a lesser degree, St. Louis. Yes the Rangers are a large market club and they perhaps made off like bandits more than any other team in terms of their free-agent acquisitions...however in the grand scheme of things, they fall behind the Knicks, Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants and maybe even Nets on the NYC sporting team scale of popularity and their players won’t be experiencing nearly the pressure of performing to the extent that they might have had they signed somewhere in Canada.

Of course the solution for Canadian teams is probably to do a better job with what they have. The Leafs have turned few prospects into solid additions to the club in the past and therefore became so reliant on free-agency to attract and retain top talent. Meanwhile, clubs like Edmonton and Calgary in recent years have remained competitive due to shrewd trades and good drafting.

In fact, this is the solution in any sport as we’ve seen our own Raptors suffer through a solid stretch of mediocrity with periods of dreadfulness mixed in thanks to mismanagement. Under Bryan Colangelo and co., the tables have seemingly turned yet one has to wonder if Toronto was not such a popular spot for foreign players, how successful this team would have been in recruiting various free-agents. As an extension of this, if Toronto had only won 30 games last year, would Jason Kapono have come a calling?

I believe the salary cap in the NBA has done a good job of helping small-market teams remain competitive with their larger rivals and has forced teams to effectively plan how they’ll spend their limited resources.

Perhaps it’s just going to take NHL teams a few years to catch up.

Some other random off-season thoughts:

-I’ve heard rumblings the Raptors are talking to Jamaal Magloire’s representatives behind closed doors. I’m not sure I believe this and tend to think it’s more of a creation via local individuals but I posted on the forum this morning to see if anyone’s heard otherwise.

-Caught some summer-league action via RaptorsTV yesterday. It’s some pretty turn-over and foul-prone stuff at times and once again it reminds me of two rules one should apply to the contests:

1) Just because a certain top draft pick is struggling in the summer-league contests, doesn’t mean he’ll never amount to jack squat in the NBA. This is especially the case with big men and although Greg Oden has been having his issues in the first few games, so did the likes of Bargnani, Aldridge and even Tim Duncan when he made his summer-league debut.
2) However, those who dominate right away, especially in certain areas, tend to be able to perform immediately at a high level in the NBA in those same areas. We saw it with Bargnani’s shooting ability which transferred immediately to the regular season.

-The one player who really stood out in the three games I saw yesterday was Rudi Gay. Besides some disgusting dunks (including a few "welcome to the NBA" ones on Yi Jianlian) he also showed a great feel for the game, incredible athleticism, some excellent shooting from long-range and simply looked much more confident than last season.

-Speaking of Yi, he did have a decent second-half against the Memphis summer-league entry and displayed some excellent footwork and touch from in close (and he did get some revenge by throwing one down through the Memphis defense.) However what a mess this looks like it’s going to be from the Bucks’ perspective regarding his status with the club. It appears that his camp is standing firm in terms of his willingness to suit up for Milwaukee and to this end, they may eventually have to deal the young prospect. This then reaffirms my disbelief over why the Bucks drafted him in the first place knowing that there was a good chance he wouldn’t play for them. This has Fran Vazquez all over it and even if the Bucks get a player in return via trade, it will be low-ball city as GM’s will see that GM Larry Harris is playing from a distinct disadvantage.

-The Raptors this year don’t have a summer-league entry as many of their players are going to be playing on various international clubs as the off-season continues. However there are some former Raptors getting another look from teams this été. Milt Palacio, Lamond Murray and Jelani McCoy (the latter two are both on the Nuggets entry) are all participating and strangely enough the Phoenix Suns team which has yet to play boasts both Michael Bradley and Pape Sow.

-This might be the first indication that Sow will have to look to catch on with another club this season as the Raptors look for less of a project in terms of a big-man to help fill out their bench. Spider-man will be missed from a fan’s perspective, but he simply wasn’t getting the minutes he needed to keep developing on the offensive end and this might be the best move for all parties involved.

-Finally, in case you missed it, Dime magazine profiled Chris Bosh and featured him on their May cover. CB4 was also discussed in last month’s edition regarding the top 10 power forwards currently in the league, and while I’m not sure I totally agree with their rankings, it makes for some good debate.

FRANCHISE