Quote:
Originally Posted by jjshabado
I don't think freeroll means what you think it means. Its pretty obvious there were negative consequences to signing those deals.
Any deal signed before the old CBA expired has no guarantee to be honored 'as is' under the new agreement. Knowing this, if you're the Penguins, would you rather:
A. Have Sidney Crosby under contract through 2025 for $104M.
B. Have Sidney Crosby entering the last year of his deal, UFA after 2012-13.
The Penguins obviously are going to sign the long contract, banking on a steady cap hit through Crosby's age 26-36 seasons. If they hold off as to 'not sign an agreement they have no intention in honoring,' wait to sign him under the new rules, whatever, they'll be forced to sign him for a shorter term, possibly for a higher AAV.
Should contracts like Crosby's be honored in the new CBA, the Penguins have Crosby on the books for 12 years (at a discount), instead of 5. Should a rollback occur, the Penguins are absolved of 7 years' salary liability. It's likely a win-win in either scenario, so the team might as well try and secure Crosby to a longer, more cap-friendly contract now. It's a freeroll because they have nothing to lose and 5+ years of Crosby under a +EV contract to gain.
On the flip side, if you're Crosby, you have nothing to lose signing a $104M contract given your concussion history and the general logistics surrounding signing a $104M contract. There's no guarantee you'll get longer than than a 5-year deal under the new rules, so why wouldn't you sign one that, if honored, makes you set for the rest of your life?
Put concisely, under these deals, the team gets extra service from the player for a discount while the player gets more guaranteed money than they otherwise do under a new CBA.
The ability to have these discount contracts honored may have hinged upon the beliefs behind a widespread rollback, but I have to think some sort of amnesty period is inevitable anyway. Again, most players make out ahead in that scenario.
If the owners 'give' to honor preexisting contracts (signed under an expired agreement), and the players 'give' on new contract limits/buyouts, we'll probably have a deal. We'll have a rollback through the amnesty period and limited spending moving forward, but old deals remain guaranteed. I agree that guys like Kovalchuk, Hossa, et al. should have their deals honored that were signed in the spirit of the old CBA.
However, guys signing 5+ year contracts at the gun knew exactly what they were doing - freerolling for maximum guaranteed money. The notion that it was solely the owners signing players to deals with the intention of reducing them later just isn't true.