The Philly Fanatic and Gilligan

Good thing the lockout taught everyone a good lesson in finances. The "salary cap", "revenue sharing" and "the good of the game" have been the buzz words around hockey for the past year. But in one day, that Tony Robbins-like message has suffered a major blow.

Let's start with Bob Clarke signing Ryan Kesler to an offer sheet of $1.9 million for the coming season. If the Canucks don't match it, they get a 2nd round pick in compensation for Kesler, who was a 1st round pick. Doesn't take a genious to figure out that Kesler will remain a Canuck. And forget about a sign and trade with Kesler as league rules prohibit that.

So when Dave Nonis inks Kesler to that deal, Bob Clarke will have been successful in throwing the pay scale out of whack. 10 goals now equals nearly $2 million per. That's because Kesler will be entitled to a qualifying offer of $1.9 million again after this season. And then comparable Group 2 free agents can use Kesler's numbers to seek that amount in arbitration. If Kesler lights the lamp 25 times this season, that's not a big deal. But that probably means a hefty increase in icetime just to protect the financial interests of the Canucks and other teams with upcoming Group 2's. Nice job, Bob. Way to think this one through.

Some GM's are already talking about doing the same thing to the Flyers when the contracts of young guns Jeff Carter and Mike Richards come up. But that's the kind of thinking that led to Martin Lapointe's $5 million dollar deal under the old CBA. So does Clarke get away with this or do the GM's go after him? I'll put my money on Egos over Brains in this one.

And then there's the contract of Rick Dipietro. $67.5 million over 15 years. Some are saying the Islanders will look like geniuses if he turns into a top 5 goalie in the NHL. What if he doesn't? What if the team the New York braintrust puts in front of him is so bad that he gets shell-shocked from all of the red-light treatment he receives on a nightly basis? Then the Islanders have yet another albatross of a contract hanging around their collective neck. Remember the Alexei Yashin deal - 10 years, $90 million? That one runs until the end of the 2010-11 season. If Dipietro doesn't live up to his potential, who will trade for a guy with, say, 11 years left on his deal? The answer rhymes with the word "hero". So guess who'll be on the Island longer than the Skipper, Ginger and Marianne?

Ahhhhhh, myopia. You gotta love it. Good thing we missed a year of hockey for this.