Skip to content
Flyers
Link copied to clipboard

Canadian currency's woes could hurt Flyers chances to move players

Drop in Canada's loonie could force a reduction in next year's salary cap, which means some Flyers could be too costly for teams.

The Flyers' Mark Streit and Vincent Lecavalier go after the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins' Steve Downie. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
The Flyers' Mark Streit and Vincent Lecavalier go after the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins' Steve Downie. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

COLUMBUS, Ohio - With each cent the Canadian dollar drops in relation to its American counterpart, so too may Ron Hextall's chances to hasten the Flyers' rebuild.

At the NHL's Board of Governors meetings in Florida in early December, commissioner Gary Bettman suggested next season's salary cap might rise to $73 million from this year's $69 million limit.

When he made that prediction, the Canadian loonie was trading at 89 cents to one American dollar. Yesterday, it closed at 80 cents on the market. At the end of the 2013 season, it was 98 cents.

In other words, Canadian NHL team revenues are now worth nearly 20 percent less, compared with the American dollar, than they were less than 2 years ago.

While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact impact of the Canadian dollar on next year's salary cap - since it is a projection of this season's overall hockey-related revenue - it could bring the upper limit down closer to $71 million or $72 million. NHL officials have contended that the Canadian dollar's impact won't be "nearly that much," according to Canadian sports media outlet TSN.

There was growing speculation yesterday, though, that perhaps the only reason the salary cap could increase would be if the NHL Players' Association exercises its annual 5 percent escalator option.

But even that choice is in question. On one hand, it increases the available money for free agents. On the other, it will likely increase the percentage of escrow payments taken out of their biweekly paychecks. In addition to players' being in the highest tax bracket, 14 percent is being taken from all players this season, held in an escrow fund to ensure a 50-50 split in hockey-related revenue with owners.

The higher the salary cap, since it is based on projections, the bigger the escrow percent that must be held from players. And when the Canadian dollar drops, as it is now, there is a great chance players will not receive all of that 14 percent back.

Put simply, players are being paid 86 percent of their published salaries, with no guarantee they will be repaid the full 100 percent.

How does all of that impact the Flyers?

For one, the Flyers already have $62.2 million committed to next season, excluding the injured Chris Pronger.

More important, it is no secret that Hextall would like to move one of the five defensemen he has under contract for next season. That does not include Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz or Nick Colaiacovo, who are scheduled to become free agents.

As the March 3 trade deadline approaches, playoff teams will look to acquire defensemen to plug holes created by injury. Tampa Bay, for instance, is already missing two of its top six defensemen for the next 6 weeks.

If the salary cap were to increase to only $71 million or $72 million, teams might be less willing to acquire players such as Braydon Coburn ($4.5 million), Nick Grossmann ($3.5 million) or Luke Schenn ($3.6 million), who all have considerable cap hits for next season.

That couple of extra million on the salary cap could have made such an acquisition easier for a cap-strapped team. Nearly half of the league's 30 teams are within $1 million of this year's $69 million cap.

Moving one of those players would, in turn, open daylight for prospects such as Samuel Morin, Shayne Gostisbehere or even Travis Sanheim to make the jump to the NHL next training camp.

Not quite 'World' Cup

With NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr sitting at the same podium for the first time since the 2012-13 NHL lockout, the two sides are expected to announce details for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey today.

Details of one of hockey's worst-kept secrets created a buzz at yesterday's All-Star media availability. Aside from the six powerhouse hockey nations - Canada, United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic - two other regular participants, Switzerland and Slovakia, were bounced from the tournament.

According to Hockey Night in Canada's Elliotte Friedman, 107 of the 116 semifinalists (92.2 percent) at the last 29 major international events were from those six countries. Slovakia (five) and Switzerland (two) made up the majority of the rest.

The remaining two entries will be filled by teams of "Young Guns," players under age 23, and the "Rest of Europe." Flyers defenseman Mark Streit, who hails from Switzerland, is one of those players who won't have a chance to represent his home country.

The tournament is slated to take place in September 2016, at Toronto's Air Canada Centre. Canada last won in the World Cup in 2004; the United States captured the 1996 title when the event was hosted in part by the then-named CoreStates Center in Philadelphia.

'Johnny Hockey'

South Jersey native Johnny Gaudreau, who will participate in tonight's skills competition, was not named an injury replacement for the actual All-Star Game.

Two other rookies - Nashville's Filip Forsberg and Florida's Aaron Ekblad - were promoted to the big game, but the NHL chose to play one forward short for the big game, rather than use Gaudreau or another replacement, after Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin bowed out with injuries. With so many players flocking to Mexico or the Caribbean for the break, it was hard to wrangle replacements at the last minute.

Shady Sid injury?

Despite playing in every game before the All-Star break, including against the Flyers on Tuesday and the Blackhawks on Wednesday, the Penguins announced that Crosby would not participate in the All-Star Game. Crosby also missed the two previous All-Star Games, 2012 (Ottawa) and 2011 (Carolina), with injuries.

The Penguins said Crosby suffered his "lower-body" injury on Jan. 10 in Montreal and required injections to keep playing.

Clearly, the NHL wasn't thrilled with its biggest name deciding he would not play less than 24 hours before last night's fantasy draft. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford said Crosby will miss Tuesday's first game out of the break.

"We have no reason to question the legitimacy of Sid's medical condition," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Columbus Dispatch. "He has always gone out of his way to do whatever the league has asked him to do, whenever we ask him to do it. We could not ask for a better spokesperson, a better ambassador or a better person to promote our game."

Quotable

Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, on the busy All-Star weekend: "It's kind of obligation and it's fun. I'm pretty sure if right now I would have 6 days off, I'll take it right away. But I understand for fans what I have to do and what different players do. We have to help the fans, because they want to see not only Capitals or Columbus, they want to see everyone together, all the best players together, play one game. It's fun."

Blog: ph.ly/FrequentFlyers