2007 NHL Salary Cap Challenge

Anyone out there who spends any time on the web knows that us sports bloggers all think we would make great GMs and generally believe that we could do a better job running our favorite teams than the people who actually get paid to do so. Now while this may be true for Islanders and Knicks fans, I decided it was time for some of us to put our imaginary money where our mouths are. Thus, the TOFTT NHL Salary Cap Challenge was born! I have assembled some of the hockey blogosphere's best and brightest (and the guys from thepensblog) to assemble the best team possible given the following rules:

• We will be assembling a team of 20 players, 4 centers, 4 right wings, 4 left wings, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies.
• The salary cap for this exercise was $45 million. This is lower than the actual NHL salary cap for two reasons; 1) because we only have 20 players on our rosters, and 2) to add a little more challenge to the proceedings. NOTE: Due to a clerical error on my part some people were operating with a $42 million dollar cap, that is why a couple people have a lot of cap room left. At least they'd have room to pull a big mid-season trade right?
  
• For the player salaries, we used the 07/08 player salaries (not their actual cap hit) from here.
• To keep things simple, we used the same source for player positions. Some of their listings were a little inaccurate but like I said, I wanted to keep things simple.

So under those constraints, here is what us self-proclaimed hockey knowledgeable people came up with (player salaries are in parenthesis):

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The Tyrone Snoops
GM: snoopyjode

Tomas Holmstrom (2.25) - Sidney Crosby (0.85) - Ryan Getzlaf (0.623)
Martin Erat (1.75) - Joe Thornton (6.67) - Michel Ouellet (1.2)
Brad Isbister (0.525) - Evgeni Malkin (0.984) - Mike Knuble (2.8)
Alex Ovechkin (0.984) - Jordan Staal (0.85) - Maxim Afinogenov (3.5)
Ryan Whitey (2.5) - Sergei Gonchar (5.5)
Mark Eaton (1.6) - Chris Phillips (3.5)
Joe Corvo (2.5) - Joe DiPenta (0.7)
Ryan Miller (2.5)
Marc-Andre Fleury (1.6)

Total Cap Space Spent = $43.386
Cap Space Remaining = $1.614

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On the Cheap
GM: "Dear Lord Stanley" a.k.a. Joe

Alex Ovechkin (0.984) - Sidney Crosby (0.85) - Dany Heatley (5.5)
Daniel Sedin (3.575) - Paul Stastny (0.685) - Maxim Afinogenov (3.5)
Andrew Brunette (1.6) - Sami Pahlsson (1.4) - Jason Pominville (0.925)
Alexander Semin (1.2) - Ryan Getzlaf (0.623) - Patrick Kane (0.875)
Dan Boyle (3.625) - Lubomir Visnovsky (2.052)
Dion Phaneuf (0.942) - John-Michael Liles (1.4)
Matt Carle (0.942) - Brian Campbell (1.75)
Roberto Luongo (6.5)
Peter Budaj (0.7)

Total Cap Space Spent = $39.628
Cap Space Remaining = $5.372

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The Love Rockets
GM: Jes Golbez

Marian Gaborik (6.5) - Sidney Crosby (0.85) - Pavol Demitra (4.5)
Cory Stillman (1.75) - Evgeni Malkin (0.984) - Justin Williams (3.5)
Jere Lehtinen (3.9) - Jordan Staal (0.85) - Corey Perry (0.494)
Jay Pandolfo (0.836) - Sami Pahlsson (1.4) - Branko Radivojevic (0.68)
Kevin Bieksa (0.55) - Francois Beauchemin (1.65)
Dion Phaneuf (0.942) - Lubomir Visnovsky (2.052)
Jaroslav Modry (1.2) - Mike Commodore (1.3)
Roberto Luongo (6.75)
Chris Mason (1.25)

Total Cap Space Spent = $41.938
Cap Space Remaining = $3.062

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The Jobbers
GM: The Pensblog staff

Alex Ovechkin (0.984) - Evgeni Malkin (0.984) - Jonathan Cheechoo (2.5)
Alexander Semin (1.2) - Sidney Crosby (0.85) - Bobby Ryan (0.85)
Martin Havlat (6.0) - Vincent Lacavalier (7.167) - Guillaume Latendresse (0.85)
Rick Nash (5.5) - Marc Savard (5.0) - Petr Sykora (2.5)
Dion Phaneuf (0.942) - Matt Carle (0.942)
Brent Seabrook (0.942) - Kris Letang (0.56)
Jay Bouwmeester (2.25) - Mark Eaton (1.6)
Marc-Andre Fleury (1.6)
Pascal Leclaire (1.4)

Total Cap Space Spent = $44.621
Cap Space Remaining = $0.379

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Mike's Affordable Young Men
GM: Mike Chen

Alex Ovechkin (0.984) - Sidney Crosby (0.85) - Jonathan Cheechoo (2.5)
Alexander Semin (1.2) - Eric Staal (4.5) - Milan Michalek (0.942)
Rick Nash (5.5) - Evgeni Malkin (0.984) - Corey Perry (0.494)
Henrik Zetterberg (2.7) - Paul Stastny (0.685) - Maxim Afinogenov (3.5)
Dan Boyle (3.625) - Jay Bouwmeester (2.25)
Matt Carle (1.367) - John-Michael Liles (1.4)
Chris Pronger (6.25) - Dion Phaneuf (0.942)
Ryan Miller (2.5)
Marc-Andre Fleury (1.6)

Total Cap Space Spent = $44.773
Cap Space Remaining = $0.227

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The Loser's Losers
GM: Loser Chris

Martin Havlat (6.0) - Sidney Crosby (0.85) - Ales Hemsky (3.6)
Alex Ovechkin (0.984) - Evgeni Malkin (0.984) - Alexander Radulov (0.689)
Henrik Zetterberg (2.7) - Eric Staal (4.5) - Jonathan Cheechoo (2.5)
Kristian Huselius (1.4) - Jordan Staal (0.85) - Colby Armstrong (1.2)
Dion Phaneuf (0.942) - Jay Bouwmeester (2.25)
Ryan Whitney (2.5) - Brian Campbell (1.75)
Marc-Andre Bergeron (1.045) - John-Michale Liles (1.4)
Mikka Kiprusoff (3.6)
Marc-Andre Fleury (1.6)

Total Cap Space Spent = $41.344
Cap Space Remaining = $3.656

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Analysis

• Most purchased player: No surprise here, Sidney Crosby was on everyone's team. It's a no-brainer when you have the best player in the league still in his rookie contract. Malkin, Ovechkin, and Phaneuf were right on Sid's heels.
• Most expensive purchase: Team Pensblog invested the most on a single player with Vincent Lecavalier and his accompanying $7.167 million price tag.
• Biggest shock: No Gary Roberts on Team Pensblog?!? What is the world coming to?
• Best bargain buy: It's hard to beat Corey Perry costing less than half a million.
• Guy I'd never heard of: Bobby Ryan? Are we sure that's a real guy?
  

The lesson learned here seems to be simple, load up on young talent (those rookie contracts are the best!) It will be real interesting to see how this exercise plays out in a couple of years when guys like Sid, Ovechkin, Malkin and Phaneuf get into their second contracts.

It was fun to put on the imaginary GM hat and play GM for a day. I just wish there was a way to really see these teams take each other on. That would be a hockey fan's dream come true. Hopefully everyone had as much fun doing this as I did. Now I have to go scout incoming rookies for next year's roster!