Building a Dream Team

As I was browsing si.com yesterday I noticed a feature that they ran in which two of their football analysts created their own football teams within the confines of the salary cap. I thought this was a great idea and decided to apply it to a different sport, hockey. I found a site that had every player in the NHLs salary listed and decided to try and build my own team. At first it was going real well and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to build an all-star team. Then I did the math and realized I was $6 million over budget and needed to rethink my strategy. So I had to cut a few guys and make some concessions but I feel that my team turned out solid.

Note: The salary cap for the 08/09 NHL season is $56 million

Forwards

Alexander Ovechkin LW 9,538,462
Zach Parise LW 3,125,000
Sean Avery LW 3,875,000
Alexandre Burrows LW 483,333
Marian Gaborik RW 6,333,333
Jason Pominville RW 1,033,333
Alexander Radulov RW 918,587
Brad May RW 600,000
Marc Savard C 5,000,000
Anze Kopitar C 955,867
Johan Franzen C 941,667
Boyd Devereaux C 575,000

Total 33,379,582

Defense

Mike Green 5,250,000
Brooks Orpik 3,750,000
Joe Corvo 2,625,000
Anton Volchenkov 2,500,000
Francois Beauchemin 1,650,000
Duncan Keith 1,475,000

Total 17,250,000

Goalies

Ryan Miller 2,666,667
Mike Smith 950,000

Total 3,616,667

Grand Total 54,246,249


Explanation of Picks

I decided to spend a little less than 17% of my cap on Alexander Ovechkin. This was a no brainer as Alexander the Great can score with the best of them and playing with a play maker like Mark Savard can only help his numbers grow. The guy’s worst season in the NHL saw him score 46 goals with 92 points so he is worth every penny.

Before any questions about why I chose Brad May start up let me explain myself. My team is full of young stars who have bright futures but lack playoff experience. Brad May has played in over 80 playoff games and is a true veteran who would bring much needed leadership to the locker room. He is also a great penalty killer and isn't afraid to drop the gloves to protect some of the younger forwards.

Originally I wanted Cristobal Huet as my goalie but since the Blackhawks drowned him in money I went with the playoff proven, cheap, and still young Ryan Miller. At under $3 million he is an absolute steal.

I was glad I could get Pickering native Sean Avery on the team as his hustle and pesky attitude will be needed to take opponents of their game. Also getting Brooks Orpik, the best defenseman in the NHL, on the team was a necessity. However my favorite pick-up was Boyd Devereaux as he is one of the most under rated players in hockey today. He works hard every shift and is one of the best fundamental hockey players in the game. He is like the Tim Duncan of hockey. No flash but he gets the job done.

I had to get rid of key players like Peter Mueller, Patrick Kane, and Ryan Whitney for salary cap reasons but in the end I think my team came out real nice. I encourage everyone to visit this site http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/index.php and try and build your own team. Feel free to comment on my team and also to post your own. I look forward to seeing what kind of team you put together. Remember the cap is $56 million.

Worst Case Scenario for the Pack

When Brett Favre retired after the end of last season Packers fans mourned the fact that the franchise’s best player of all time was no longer going to be wearing the yellow and green. However only months into his retirement Favre is talking about coming back and Packers fans couldn’t be more scared and upset.

Favre coming back presents a nightmare situation for both the Packers front office and also the fans. After Favre left back-up quarterback Aaron Rodgers stepped up and started to ready himself for his first season as a starter in the NFL. Now he may have to ride the bench again if Favre comes back to town which might force Rodgers to decide to play somewhere where a team is willing to make a real commitment to him.

The worst part of the whole situation is that Favre is saying that if the Packers don’t want him to come back then he is willing to be traded to another team and teams such as the Vikings and the Bears have expressed interest. Could you imagine Mr. Packer playing for the arch rival Bears? Or seeing Favre wearing Viking Purple? It makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

To me there many different ways that this can play out with none of them looking particularly good for the Packers and their fans.

1. Favre comes back and plays for the Packers for another season, maybe even 2 or 3, and the Packers tell Rodgers to hit the pine for a bit longer and wait. Rodgers doesn’t resign after his contract expires in 2009 and walks to another team and becomes a great quarterback while the Pack may have to pick another QB in the draft if Favre walks away again. If Favre doesn’t have a repeat season of last years success then fans will shout he should have stayed retired and he came back for selfish reasons.

2. The Packers bring Favre back and trade him to a team not in the division. This would mean that Head Coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson would be known forever as the two men who traded the best quarterback in Packer’s history. This would also mean that Favre would be playing for a different team and would earn the ire of many Packers fans who would feel he came back for selfish reasons and never really cared about Green Bay.

3. McCarthy and Thompson convince Favre not to come back and to stay retired. This could be a positive but if the Packers and Rodgers end up having a terrible season then fans might clamor and say they should have brought Brett back.
Favre has earned the right to make the decision but I don’t think he fully understands the situation he is creating for the Packers as an organization. He is causing a massive distraction at Packers camp and is forcing players to have to talk to the press about he topic everyday instead of concentrating on the teams first season without him.

Having said that I think that if an athlete decides to retire than they should stay retired. Nobody put a gun to Favre’s head and told him he couldn’t play football anymore so would he retire if there was no urgency or need? Favre is a grown man and could have waited a bit longer before making his decision instead of springing this whole situation on the Packers who by now have fully transitioned into a system that doesn’t revolve around Favre anymore.

Any course of action that the Packers decide to take will not be taken any time soon as clearly McCarthy and the Packers have no idea how to approach the situation and are choosing to stay quiet, at least to the media, as they contemplate their next move. Its going to be an interesting off season for the Packers and Brett Favre as they go back in forth in a game of will they wont they.

Best Match Ever

For the first time since 2003 someone other than Roger Federer has won Wimbledon. Rafael Nadal needed 4 hours and 48 minutes and every bit of skill he possesses to finally beat the world’s #1 player at the All England Club. Nadal won 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7 and became the first player to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year since Bjorn Borg did it in 1980.

Nadal wasn’t the only one chasing history on Sunday however as Federer was so close to becoming the first man since the 1880s to win a sixth consecutive championship at the All England Club. Instead however Federer was forced to sit alone in his chair with his thoughts in his very posh RF sweater and think about what might have been.

Federer went down to 2 sets to 0 but fought back bravely and even staved off two Championship Points in the fourth set. However history was against him as no man since 1927 had come back to win a Wimbledon final after losing the first two sets, and none had overcome a match point to seize victory since 1948. There was a feeling that if anyone could do it though it would be Roger Federer, especially since it was on grass. Going into Sunday's final he hadn't lost a match on grass since 2002, and he also hadn't lost a set during this tournament before Sunday.

That was all before Rafael Nadal though. Nadal, who everyone has now labeled as the new greatest player in the world, in one year he embarrassed Federer at the French Open and then took him to his limits and beat him at his best surface at Wimbledon. For Nadal this was his fifth Grand Slam title and his first away from the French Open shaking the claim that he was a one surface player who couldn’t do well anywhere else.

As far as the Federer vs. Nadal rivalry goes it was their sixth Grand Slam final, already more than between any other pair of men in the 40-year Open era. There could be many to follow though as Federer is only 26 and Nadal is 22. Federer has led the rankings for a record 231 consecutive weeks, and Nadal has been second for a record 154.

I personally thought the match was one of the most exciting sporting events that I had watched since March Madness in the final game with Kansas and Memphis. The only thing I didn’t like was how Rafael Nadal was running around in the stands hugging people and shaking hands immediately after his win. You are supposed to show some class and to me that shows disrespect to his opponent. Other than that an absolutely amazing match that everyone should have watched and it would give people a new found respect for the game of tennis. I know it did for me.

Quote of the Week

"Where do I begin? He's a moron, first of all. Secondly, he really believes that any news for the NHL is good news. Thirdly, he loves the limelight and I don't think anyone in hockey will dispute that. Lastly, he's in a pathetic hockey market where they can't get on any page of the newspaper let alone the front page of the sports, so any of this stuff carries on." - Kevin Lowe GM of the Edmonton Oilers about the GM of the Anaheim Ducks Brian Burke

Buffalo Issues

A friend of mine is a huge Buffalo Sabres fan, don’t ask me why, and asked me to write about the front office woes that the Sabres are having. So Draper this one is for you.

Over the past three NHL seasons the Buffalo Sabres have won an average of 48 games and averaged 96 points. Looks impressive but when you look at the number on a year-over-year basis they are nearly as impressive.

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PTs	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
2005-06	82	52	24	-	6	110	281	239	1144	2nd in Northeast	Lost in Conference Finals, 3–4 (Hurricanes)
2006-07	82	53	22	-	7	113	308	242	1177	1st in Northeast	Lost in Conference Finals, 1–4 (Senators)
2007-08	82	39	31	-	12	90	255	242	1040	4th in Northeast	Did not qualify

Last season the problem for the Sabres was clearly that they didn’t have enough firepower on offense and that can mostly be attributed to the loss of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. In 2006-07 the two combined for 164 points and at the end of the season instead of keeping both of them, or even one for that matter, GM Darcy Regier let them both go into free agency.

Sabres fans were very upset about this especially due to the fact that the previous off season the Sabres signed Thomas Vanek for $10 million a season making him the highest paid player in the NHL at the time. To make matter even worse Vanek only recorded 64 points last season which was 20 points below his previous year’s totals.

Even backup goaltender Martin Biron was let go and was subsequently signed by the Philadelphia Flyers. To make matters worse he led the Flyers to the playoffs last year where they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Buffalo fans thought things couldn’t get worse but unfortunately for them they did. Approaching the trade deadline of last year it was rumored that Brian Campbell wanted out of Buffalo. Fans were livid as this would be the 3^rd All-star to leave the team is less than one full year. They sat and watched in horror as on trade deadline day Campbell was traded to the San Jose Sharks for Steve Bernier and a 1^st round pick in the upcoming draft.

In an attempt to salvage something of a team Regier went out and signed Patrick Lalime this off-season as well as trading Bernier to the Canucks for picks and subsequently trading those picks to the Sharks for Craig Rivet. However these moves are clearly too little too late.

It’s unbelievable to see that Darcy Regier still has his job as so far he has lost Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, Martin Biron, and Brian Campbell. He also overpaid for Vanek who is clearly not worth $10 million a year. He went out and got Rivet who is not as good as Brian Campbell but should help keep his job for a little while longer.

Yes Buffalo Sabres fans have had it rough over these past 2 years as their GM appears to be a mole sent to infiltrate the organization by every other team in the NHL. However they can take satisfaction in knowing that at least they have a better team than the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Side note: It is also well known around the league that after this season Sabres goalie Ryan Miller will be leaving the club to join the Detroit Red Wings.