Clutch and the "New Economic Reality"

While the NHL is benefitting from it's first season in a capped system Clutch has had it's own economic shakedown. Players can no longer expect instant raises and massive salary increases. Rangers GM David Burns weighed in on the subject recently:


I love the new rules for signing players. Players salaries are based on their OV not on their future potential. In our league there is only so much revenue that you can generate through ticket sales. The rest of the bonuses are based on performance which, naturally, means they all end up in the pockets of teams in the upper eschelon.

In other leagues, and in the past here I believe, a young player would get a massive contract before he was acutally at the skill level to justify it and older players simply demanded huge raises. This meant that salary levels zoomed to the cap and there were no such things as bargain players. Now an older player who loses talent will sign for less and younger players are getting reasonable contracts. The best part is you know what you can sign a player for. In the past the number was made up arbitrarily and was often much more expensive than I thought necessary. Bravo!