The Year Of The Defenseman

You've heard the phrase "defense wins championships" and of course in hockey hot goaltending. It's old phrase, you can tell, because last year in the birth of the new NHL as they love to call it, offense was king. I can recall many a game early on that ended 7-6, quite the offensive thriller. But if the rules and regulations allowed for great offense to make the game more interesting and popular, then why did everyone this offseason hunt defenseman like they were rarer than gold? The best explanation I can offer is this: teams were desperately looking for a way to counter that offensive juggernaut. We saw teams like Minnesota who prided on their defensive ways miss the playoffs and the powerful Hurricanes strong on offense won it all. What was Minnesota's response? Sure they acquired some new defensemen like Kim Jonsson to help them out, but they ran for offensive minded players like Pavol Demitra and Mark Parrish. So it still begs the question, if even Jacques Lemaire is willing to admit you need a better offense, then what's with all the D?

It was first evident on day one, the signing of Ed Jovanovski. The Florida Panthers were believed to be strong in the hunt, that guys like Bertuzzi, Allen and Auld having come over from Vancouver could persuade Jovo to return to his roots. But it wasn't loyalty or friendship that won him over. When the Coyotes decided to be on his doorstep at 12:01pm of Free Agency and offered the veteran $6.5 million a season, that was all it took. Ok so they also sweet talked the team and demonstrated how much he meaned to them but of course he did, Phoenix would do anything for a #1 defenseman like Jovo and so they did. So what's wrong with that? Is it wrong for a man to get the most out of his job? No, and he had no real loyalties to show to another team while certainly the Canucks were never going to afford him this year. But $6.5 million? It's the reason former GM Mike Keenan backed out of his and many subsequent #1 defenseman. Zdeno Chara is another excellent case. Easily the most prolific D on the market this year, Ottawa could not afford to keep both him and Redden on the team due to league parity (aka the salary cap). Chara eventually knew he wouldn't be returning so left the Senators to go as far as...the same exact division. The Boston Bruins, in a surprising move made the first attempt to rebuild their franchise after the devastating Thornton trade. Former Assistant GM to Ottawa Peter Chiarelli made his way over to Boston and with him came Chara for a whopping $7 million a season. Money on the level of Norris and future Hall of Famer Niklas Lidstrom, Chara commanded it after his continuous successful seasons and oh yeah, a 6'9" frame that dwarfs anyone else in the league. I've seen Zdeno up close in practice, and yes he really is that big even compared to the other players. Boston wasn't doing a typical rebuild though, this just before they signed center Marc Savard and with all the money thrown around, it seems teams are willing to spend more to get back to glory.

Some teams however, didn't make the right choices. Pavel Kubina is not a bad defenseman by any stretch, but if you think he's worth $5 million a season, then you're in Maple Leafs management. But seriously, John Ferguson, Jr. paid far too much while spending again on the far more useless Hal Gill. That was only the beginning though. The St. Louis threw $4 million per at Jay McKee, who while very useful for Buffalo and a good defenseman in his own right, won't even be the #1 on that team. In fact for a team that was the worst in the league, the Blues have one of the more promising defenses now in the league, with Brewer, Backman, Jackman, and now McKee leading the top 4 it's a wonder that the Blues really required the services of McKee but at that price, Jay wasn't going to flinch even for the Blues. The Lightning did not escape unscathed either, while not necessarily overpaying, the signing of Luke Richardson can only be considered foolish, much like Keenan's previous year signing of Karpovtsev, both are useless players in my mind. They did manage to snag Filip Kuba, a poor man's Pavel Kubina if you can call him that, so it will be interesting to see what their D can do, not that Marc Denis isn't used to a lesser defensive lineup.

Overpaying has become the name of the game, and in a league where overspending caused inevitable full year lockout, it's a dangerous game to play. However, the catch is that the GM's overspending will come out of the pockets of the NHLPA's members to compensate the revenue sharing. Ironically, the NHLPA is still paying for its mistakes after it already didn't want a salary cap. The owners will win out in the end because they are after all in control. Who do you blame for the overspending, the owners or the players? Don't blame either because the salary cap and revenue sharing will rebalance and take care of such problems, assuming that both are working properly. And in the NHL, as the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes taught us so well, don't ever assume anything.

See you at the red line.