NHL-ийн домогт тоглогчид болох Алекс Овечкин болон Сидни Кросби нар шинэ улирлыг угтаж байгаа ч тэдний карьер хэр удаан үргэлжлэх нь олны анхаарлыг татаж байна.
Вашингтон Кэпиталз багийн довтлогч Алекс Овечкин ирэх долоо хоногт 41 нас хүрэх гэж байгаа ч багийнхан түүнийг өндөр түвшинд тоглосоор байгаад итгэлтэй байна. Өнгөрсөн улиралд 82 тоглолтод оролцож 32 гоол, 32 оновчтой дамжуулалт гүйцэтгэсэн тэрээр багийн бүрэлдэхүүнд Жордан Кайру, Алекс Так, Бүүн Женнер зэрэг шинэ тоглогчид нэмэгдсэнтэй холбоотойгоор үүргээ өөрчлөхөд бэлэн байгаагаа илэрхийлжээ. Багийн анд Том Уилсоны хэлснээр, Овечкин амжилт ахиулах зорилготой хэвээр байгаа бөгөөд түүнийг дараагийн амжилтуудын араас зүтгэсээр байна гэж дүгнэв.
Питтсбург Пингвинз багийн төвийн тоглогч Сидни Кросби 39 нас хүрсэн ч өнгөрсөн улиралд 68 тоглолтод 29 гоол, 45 оновчтой дамжуулалт бүртгүүлэн элит түвшний тоглолтоо үзүүлсээр байна. Түүний одоогийн гэрээний хугацаа дуусаж байгаа бөгөөд Питтсбург Пингвинз багийн удирдлагатай гэрээгээ сунгах талаар яриа хэлэлцээ хийж эхэлжээ. Кросби биеийн болон сэтгэл зүйн байдлаасаа хамааран хэдэн жил тоглохоо шийдэхээр төлөвлөж байгаа ч одоогоор өөрийгөө сайн мэдэрч байгаагаа онцолсон байна.
NHL-ийн хүрээнд цалингийн цэс нэмэгдэж байгаа нь залуу тоглогчдын гэрээний үнэлэмжид хүчтэй нөлөөлж, Маклин Селлебрини, Лео Карлссон, Коннор Бедард нарын гэрээний үнэ цэнийг өсгөв. Энэхүү өсөлтийн хажуугаар Вегас Голден Найтс багаас Нью-Йорк Рейнжерс рүү шилжсэн Павел Дорофеев 11 сая ам.долларын үнэ бүхий долоон жилийн гэрээ байгуулсан нь анхаарал татаж байна. Лигийн комиссар Гэри Беттмэн өргөтгөл хийх болон плэй-оффийн бүтэц өөрчлөх асуудлаар хатуу байр суурьтай байгаа ч лигийн удирдлагууд 32-оос дээш багтай болох тохиолдолд өөрчлөлт хийх шаардлагатайг үгүйсгэсэнгүй.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
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LAS VEGAS — As last season wound down, Tom Wilson didn’t know if Alex Ovechkin would return for a 22nd season with the Washington Capitals. Heck, he’s not even sure Ovechkin knew.
But Wilson had a hunch.
“He’s shown he can keep scoring; he’s shown that he’s still got game,” Wilson said this week at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour.
After adding Jordan Kyrou, Alex Tuch and Boone Jenner this offseason, the Capitals believe their window to win is wide open. But with Ovechkin turning 41 next week, there’s a bit of a “Last Dance” vibe around the team entering this season. One last hurrah with the greatest goal scorer the game has ever seen.
“The last five years has felt like the ‘Last Dance,’ and he just keeps getting better and better,” Wilson said. “There are so many milestones that he just smashes through, and now there’s another one: Now he’s going to have the most assists in Capitals (history). There’s always another milestone. The fact that he’s just chasing the next milestone, considering what he’s done, is absolutely insane. … But who knows? Maybe they’ll write a crazy ‘Last Dance’ story about this year. I hope that’s the case. I hope that we show up and play really well as a team and keep that culture and he plays great and we’re talking about having a good playoff run.”
Ovechkin played in all 82 games last season, posting 32 goals and 32 assists — modest by his standards, but remarkable at his age. He led the Capitals in goals again, edging out Wilson by two — the pair played hot-potato with the puck on a late-season empty-netter, each trying to give the team lead to the other — but with Kyrou and Tuch in the fold, Ovechkin might not have to be the man now. Tuch scored 33 or more goals in three of the last four seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, and Kyrou had three straight 30-goal seasons with the St. Louis Blues before posting just 18 last year.
Wilson has no doubt Ovechkin will embrace whatever role suits the team best.
“At this point, he wants to win; he wants to be part of a good team,” Wilson said. “… If our team’s winning and playing well and he has 30 goals instead of 40, I don’t see him getting upset about that. I just don’t. But that being said, he’s great for a reason. He wants to be the best version of himself. He wants to score goals. He holds himself to an extremely high standard. … I don’t think you’ll ever take that out of him.”
Ovechkin’s decades-long foil, Sidney Crosby, wasn’t sure if the Capitals star would return, either. When the Pittsburgh Penguins had a home-and-home series with Washington late in the season with the Penguins resting players, Crosby sat out the game in Pittsburgh and played in the game in Washington as a show of respect for his rival.
“I had no idea at that point, so in my head, I was preparing like, ‘Oh, this could be the last time,’” Crosby said. “If it was the case, you’re going to try to enjoy it. If it’s not, it’ll be great to see him back playing again. I wasn’t sure.”
One thing Crosby is sure of: Ovechkin will still be a factor. Asked whether he had anything left to give, Crosby laughed. “How many goals did he have last year?” he quipped.
“He knows how to score goals,” Crosby added. “You don’t lose that. Maybe as you get older, you might have to adjust a little bit. But his shot is his shot, and that’s not going anywhere.”
Sidney Crosby had 29 goals and 45 assists with the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, but he has yet to sign a contract extension since becoming eligible on July 1. (Justin Berl / Getty Images)
Neither is Crosby, of course. Crosby turned 39 last month but remains an elite top-line center, with 29 goals and 45 assists in just 68 games last season. He’s entering the last year of his contract but has been eligible for an extension since July 1. Crosby’s agent, Pat Brisson, has been in early talks with Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas. After the resurgent Penguins made a surprise playoff appearance last year, talk of Crosby finishing his career elsewhere has died down considerably. It seems like it’s only a matter of time — and term — before Crosby makes it official.
“It’s just a little bit more difficult at my age, as far as trying to project where you’re going to be,” Crosby said. “It’s just different. You don’t know where you’re going to be at, year to year, with how you feel and things like that. I’d like to continue playing for a number of years. It’s just I don’t know what that number is. I guess your mind and body tell you that eventually. Right now I feel pretty good, though.”
This will be the 18th straight season in which Crosby carries an $8.7 million cap hit. He laughed when told he’s pretty much paid like a second-pairing defenseman in this era of soaring salaries. Will he try to make a big score at the end of his career? Or will the famously superstitious Crosby stick with the same number, which is his jersey number (87) and his birthday (Aug. 7)?
When he first was making $8.7 million, it was a hefty 15.3 percent of the salary cap. This year, it will be just 8.4 percent. Crosby’s glad to see the new economic landscape, even if he won’t fully cash in on it.
“It’s nice to have certainty with the cap for everybody,” Crosby said. “I think that’s really good to have. In the past, that was something that probably didn’t allow things to get where they’ve gotten to now. I think it’s good for everyone.”
Cale Makar’s eight-year contract with the Colorado Avalanche carries a record-setting $20.4 million cap hit. And Quinn Hughes’ looming extension with the Minnesota Wild might surpass that. But the most eyebrow-raising contracts of the summer came from the next generation: Macklin Celebrini’s cap hit in 2027-28 will be $18.8 million, Leo Carlsson is making $18 million thanks to the league-shaking offer sheet he signed, and Connor Bedard will get $15 million a year.
The skyrocketing salaries following the post-COVID-19 flat-cap era were the hottest topic of conversation at the player tour, with every player weighing in. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re all for it.
“It’s really cool,” Celebrini said. “In hockey, it’s pretty clear it’s all about winning for every guy. It’s no different for every team; every guy wants to win the Stanley Cup. But I think it’s also good that guys are also getting compensated for playing at a high level. You see Cale sign that — no one’s more deserving of that contract. Arguably, he should be getting more. Not arguably; he should be getting more! No one’s arguing that. … (Hopefully) it just keeps going up for every guy whose deal is expiring.”
Hockey culture subtly pressured players to take a little less money in years past so GMs had more flexibility to build a winner. In this era of player empowerment, it’s all about getting paid what you’re worth without completely hamstringing the franchise. The projected rise of the cap certainly helps in that regard.
“That was a lot of the back and forth, talking to (San Jose Sharks GM) Mike Grier and Pat Brisson, my agent,” Celebrini said. “Just looking at the projections and all the stuff that maybe not all the people know what’s going to happen. (We were) looking at those numbers and trying to find that balance. Kind of sounds dumb because at the time it was the highest AAV ever, but it was just a number that made sense.”
The offer sheet Carlsson signed with the Philadelphia Flyers — which was matched by the Anaheim Ducks — likely boosted many of these summer contracts by a couple million, at least. Quite an impact for a 21-year-old entering just his fourth season with a career high of 67 points.
Carlsson doesn’t think about his impact much, but his colleagues and contemporaries sure do.
“Players are just thanking me,” he said, chuckling.
The Seattle Kraken tried to make Jason Robertson a very rich man, too, but Robertson reportedly turned down an eight-year contract with a $15 million cap hit when he nixed a proposed trade between the cap-strapped Dallas Stars and the star-hungry Kraken.
Players around the league rave about Seattle as a road city, and it boasts one of the league’s best arenas, but the Kraken, mired in mediocrity, have struggled to lure elite players.
Asked whether Kraken players take rejections like Robertson’s personally, center Matty Beniers didn’t hesitate for a second.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “There’s a tough rep about Seattle because it’s rainy, and maybe the city. But guys love it in Seattle — the guys that are there. When the sun’s out, it’s beautiful. There’s so much nature; there are a lot of things to do. So yeah, it obviously doesn’t feel good when you’re on a team and you try to get someone else and they don’t want to come. But at the same time, if you don’t want to be here, we don’t want you, anyway.”
Beniers is a big proponent of the player empowerment trend and believes players are well within their rights to turn down a trade or contract. But that doesn’t mean he has to like being on the short end of it.
“It’s up to them; it’s their decision,” he said. “Every team, you want guys that want to be there. You don’t want to bring someone in that doesn’t want to be there. It just won’t work out.”
Pavel Dorofeyev scored 72 goals over the past two seasons for the Vegas Golden Knights, adding 12 goals in 22 games during the Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring. He led the team in goals both years. But the Golden Knights are ruthless when it comes to roster construction and sent the 25-year-old winger to the New York Rangers, who promptly signed him to a seven-year deal with an $11 million cap hit. Vegas got two first-round picks in exchange.
If Dorofeyev felt slighted or underappreciated, he hid it well.
“I had that conversation with Kelly (McCrimmon) and George (McPhee); we talked to each other about it,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just part of the business. We said a warm goodbye to each other and said thank you for everything and (that we) appreciate each other.”
In Vegas, Dorofeyev was surrounded by the likes of Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl. In New York, especially with his new contract, he’ll be expected to be the No. 1 guy.
He hardly sounds daunted by the idea.
“It probably sucks as an athlete if you fear that type of challenge,” he said. “You just have to be a man and accept the challenge.”
If and when the NHL expands to Houston or Austin (and beyond), more than half the teams in the league would miss the playoffs every season.
Commissioner Gary Bettman has been steadfast in his refusal to consider expanding or altering the playoff format, but deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Wednesday that it’s something the league will have to contemplate.
“Let’s figure out expansion first, and if there’s a will to expand, then, yeah, I think we have to rethink what the playoff qualification looks like and what the playoffs look like,” he said. “I think you’ve reached that point once you go past 32 (teams). I think you reach the point where at least you assess whether you need to change some things.”
