Re-Signing Alert: Adam Mair

[Bmwolf21]

1-year, $675,000

 

Link

[BetweenThePipes00]

What a joke. I know in the grand scheme of things, the difference between $675,000 and $550,000 (or whatever) is really nothing to the Sabres.

But the guy misses half of a season with injuries, records a whopping SEVEN points, and he gets a 50% raise? Please don't get me wrong, I understand his job is not to score and he plays his role well, but he can't stay healthy and doesn't bring nearly as much to the table as Briere or Dumont (if we want to compare injured guys getting raises). Of all the guys getting raises, he did the least to earn it just because he was not on the ice, especially in the playoffs.

So I guess if he had played every game and scored 14 points he would double his salary? Is that how it works?

[shrader]

The interesting note in TSN's article about Mair is that the Sabres have to accept the award since it is lower than $1.4 million. Obviously they wouldn't walk away from this one even if they could, but I just had to point out that I learned something new about the CBA today and I didn't learn it from dave.

[nfreeman]

What a joke. I know in the grand scheme of things, the difference between $675,000 and $550,000 (or whatever) is really nothing to the Sabres.

But the guy misses half of a season with injuries, records a whopping SEVEN points, and he gets a 50% raise? Please don't get me wrong, I understand his job is not to score and he plays his role well, but he can't stay healthy and doesn't bring nearly as much to the table as Briere or Dumont (if we want to compare injured guys getting raises). Of all the guys getting raises, he did the least to earn it just because he was not on the ice, especially in the playoffs.

So I guess if he had played every game and scored 14 points he would double his salary? Is that how it works?

 

Absolutely right. This is crazy. I like Mair and I'm glad he's coming back, but a player should actually have to do something in order to merit a 50% raise.

 

My only question is: what is the league minimum for guys of Mair's age/experience? if it's $600K, then it's much less ridiculous. if it's still $450K, then those arbitrators should take a $225K pay cut next year if they think that amount of money is insubstantial enough that they can just blithely dish it around like it's a candy bar.

[PTS]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=173532&hubName=nhl

 

Mair was awared $675k and according to the CBA, the Sabres must accept any salary under $1.4 million.

 

Assuming Dumont's award was accepted, the Sabres have about $2.5 million left until hitting the cap. Who would have ever thought this a month ago!

[Stoner]

According to AP: "Including Dumont's and Mair's salaries, Buffalo's payroll is currently around $38 million, roughly $6 million below the league's upcoming $44 million salary cap."

 

We really need to get these figures nailed down.

 

If we're worried about Mair's piddling salary, what about Andrew Peters? If we need to cut some payroll, why isn't he sent to Nashville for a bag of pucks?

[PTS]

I assume AP is taking Buffalo's payroll as it's salary cap hit which isn't correct but to be honest with you, I don't think even the Sabres know how close they are to the max.

 

http://members.shaw.ca/cdelosreyes/buf.html

 

That website's numbers seem to be right.

[hopeleslyobvious]

I assume AP is taking Buffalo's payroll as it's salary cap hit which isn't correct but to be honest with you, I don't think even the Sabres know how close they are to the max.

 

http://members.shaw.ca/cdelosreyes/buf.html

 

That website's numbers seem to be right.

 

Yeah, I don't think the AP is correct. It's actually pretty annoying that the media seems confused about the new CBA.

[phSabres84]

...but to be honest with you, I don't think even the Sabres know how close they are to the max.

I'm fairly certain that the General Manager and Accounting & Finance staff of a professional hockey franchise know where they stand towards the salary cap...

[LabattBlue]

What a joke. I know in the grand scheme of things, the difference between $675,000 and $550,000 (or whatever) is really nothing to the Sabres.

But the guy misses half of a season with injuries, records a whopping SEVEN points, and he gets a 50% raise? Please don't get me wrong, I understand his job is not to score and he plays his role well, but he can't stay healthy and doesn't bring nearly as much to the table as Briere or Dumont (if we want to compare injured guys getting raises). Of all the guys getting raises, he did the least to earn it just because he was not on the ice, especially in the playoffs.

So I guess if he had played every game and scored 14 points he would double his salary? Is that how it works?

It's all relative. Just look at what Peters is getting and Mair looks like a bargain. ;)

[BetweenThePipes00]

It's all relative. Just look at what Peters is getting and Mair looks like a bargain. ;)

 

I wish it were all relative, but it's not. They are throwing darts at a board. Nagy just got a 50% raise for scoring 1.10 ppg ... Briere got a 150% raise for scoring 1.21 ppg. What's the difference? how come Nagy gets the same raise as a guy who scored 7 points all season and Briere gets superstar money?

[Stoner]

Hopefully this helps clear things up: the salary cap "hit" for a player is the average of his salary over the length of his contract. Thus the salary cap hit for Tim Connolly, who will be paid 2.2, 3.2 and 3.5 million the next three years, is a little under 3 million. If that's been explained here before, sorry. It appears as if AP is using the actual salary total, which is always going to be lower than the average. So with Miller and Kalinin still to come, we're getting hard up against the cap, all up in its grill. Dave, don't you be rolling your eyes at me! :)

[shrader]

Hopefully this helps clear things up: the salary cap "hit" for a player is the average of his salary over the length of his contract. Thus the salary cap hit for Tim Connolly, who will be paid 2.2, 3.2 and 3.5 million the next three years, is a little under 3 million. If that's been explained here before, sorry. It appears as if AP is using the actual salary total, which is always going to be lower than the average. So with Miller and Kalinin still to come, we're getting hard up against the cap, all up in its grill. Dave, don't you be rolling your eyes at me! :)

 

That's not the case actually. In a couple years, our actual payroll is going to be less than the salary cap hit (as of today's numbers anyway). Here's a quick example:

 

Say you have 3 players on 3 year deals:

-Player A: $1 million in year 1, $2 million in year 2, $3 million in year 3

-Player B: $2 million, $2.5 million, $3 million

-Player C: $1 million, $1.25 million, $1.5 million

 

The cap hit is $5.75 million, but the payroll in the final year is $7.5 million.

 

 

The Sabres are going to run into a situation like this in a couple years. I hope things go well or else we could see some salary dumping by 2009.

[Stoner]

I'm lost again. I think I'll go back to unsuccessfully ignoring the business of sports.

[Taro T]

Hopefully this helps clear things up: the salary cap "hit" for a player is the average of his salary over the length of his contract. Thus the salary cap hit for Tim Connolly, who will be paid 2.2, 3.2 and 3.5 million the next three years, is a little under 3 million. If that's been explained here before, sorry. It appears as if AP is using the actual salary total, which is always going to be lower than the average. So with Miller and Kalinin still to come, we're getting hard up against the cap, all up in its grill. Dave, don't you be rolling your eyes at me! :)

You are correct about Connolly; however, as Shrader pointed out, you are incorrect about the actual salary ALWAYS being lower than the average.

 

Let's use Timmy's contract to demonstrate. Timmy's average is $2.97MM. In year 1, his actual salary is lower than his average salary. In year 2, his actual salary is ~$200k HIGHER than his average and in year 3 his actual salary is ~$500k higher than his average salary.

 

IF all the other players on the Sabres had contracts that had equivalent actual and average $'s in 2 seasons, then the Sabres ACTUAL payroll could exceed the salary cap by Timmy's $500k that his actual salary exceeds his average.

 

I'd expect overall that this effect will end up being a wash as I'd expect to see in about 2 years, ~1/3 of the team being on 1 year deals or deals that pay the same each season, ~1/3 in later years of contracts (where actual salaries are higher than the contract's average), and ~1/3 in early years of contracts (where actual salaries are lower than the contract's average). The actual team payroll will probably slightly exceed the average, but I don't expect to see it be a HUGE exceedance.