Less than 24 hours left for compromise
If Jack Bauer can save the world in 24 hours, surely Mike Gillis and the Sedins can compromise on a contract extension in the same time frame.
Right?
Some of the negotiation details that were leaked out in the past week are sketchy, but I’ll try my best to sift through them and determine where Gillis and the Sedins can compromise.
- The Sedins’ proposal was for identical, 12-year/$64 million contracts for each twin (front loaded in the amount of $43 million in the first 5 years); the cap hit works out to about $5.25 million each. (Jason Botchford, Vancouver Province)
- The Sedins have previously talked about leaving the NHL early and finishing their careers in Sweden. (Aftonbladet via Dobber Hockey)
- Mike Gillis wants to keep the cap hit at around $5.5 million at a term of around 5 years. (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun)
- Mike Gillis is as concerned about real dollars as he is about cap hit. (Tony Gallagher, Vancouver Province)
So what does this all mean?
Assuming the first 5 years of the Sedins’ contract proposal is evenly distributed, this works out to $8.6 million per season during the first part of that contract. Because of the way the current CBA works, the contract amounts cannot be lowered by more than $4.3 million from year to year. With $21 million due in the last 7 years of the contract, it’s possible it was structured so that the Sedins are due $5 million in year 6, $3 million in years 7 to 11, and $1 million in year 12. If they intend to retire by, say, age 36 (year 7 of the contract), then perhaps they are in actuality looking at a contract worth around $50 million over 7 years – an annual salary close to their market value and at a term that will take them to retirement (with the remaining years tacked on to get to Gillis’ ideal cap hit). From here, it’s easier to see the difference between the Sedins and Gillis’ original position of $27.5 million over 5 years ($5.5 million per season).
I know I used a lot of assumptions in this post, but the logic would remain the same regadless. If the gap between the two parties is $22.5 million in real dollars and an extra 2 years in term, can they bridge it before tomorrow? Are they willing to split the difference? Is $40 million over 7 years enough to get it done?
The clock is ticking.
