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Sunday, February 16, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

If NHL owners have their way and institute a salary cap with the next collective bargaining agreement, it is likely they will aim for $40 million or less. That figure makes sense because it is only $2 million below the current average team payroll.

But what will happen to high-spending teams such as the Rangers, who this week pushed their league-record payroll to just less than $80 million with the acquisition of Alexei Kovalev?

There is no circumstance under which they would be able to pare enough payroll to fit under the cap with the snap of a finger, largely because there probably would be few or no takers for inflated salaries being paid to players such as Bobby Holik, who is collecting $45 million over the next five years. And, unlike the NFL, there is no option to cut a player to fit under the cap, nor will there be any chance the NHL Players Association would agree to non-guaranteed contracts.

What that will mean, it appears to many inside the business, is that the owners will have no choice but to offer a gradual cap. It could start at a high figure, then slide downward year by year.

And that high figure, like pretty much everything else that is askew about the NHL's economic structure, is sure to be dictated by how wildly the Rangers spend their money before the expiration of the current labor agreement.

Bill Watters, the Maple Leafs' assistant general manager who earlier this week ripped the Penguins for taking the Rangers' offer for Kovalev rather than his team's, now is working to quell anger in Toronto about the failure to land the big prize. "Kovalev was just a blip along the way," he told Toronto Star. "There are 29 teams in the league other than Pittsburgh, and one of them was going to get Kovalev. Life goes on."

Shed no tears for Arturs Irbe, who led the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup final last spring but was demoted this week to the AHL's Lowell Lock Monsters after posting a 7-17-2 record and .884 save percentage. Carolina management put him through waivers last week, but no team claimed him because of his $2.5 million salary this season and $5.5 million due in the next two. Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford had pleaded with Irbe to restructure his contract so that another NHL team might be willing to take him, but Irbe rejected it in favor of playing in the minors for the same pay.

Flyers GM Bob Clarke is letting counterparts know he is in the market for a top-shelf, two-way defenseman. For some reason, though, he has yet to contact Phoenix about the best available player who fits that bill: Teppo Numminen, the most underappreciated player in the game at his position. Other defensemen viewed as being available on the trade market: Bryan Marchment, Aaron Miller, Glen Wesley, Dmitry Yushkevich and Alexei Zhitnik.

Daniel Alfredsson took it to heart when Mario Lemieux earlier this week warned that the Senators had better enjoy their time together now before they, like the Penguins, are forced to watch their stars leave. Alfredsson, 30, can be an unrestricted free agent after next season and could command a salary in the range of $7 million. That is sure to force debt-ridden Ottawa to trade him before then, although he hopes not. "The Penguins were able to keep Mario and Jaromir Jagr for a long time," he said Wednesday at Mellon Arena. "They found a way to do it and, hopefully, they can find a way in Ottawa."