No, I was going to type something longer, but stopped after that statement. If someone is a Sens fan, and they live in Ottawa, they get a choice of what game to see. Pittsburgh and Washington would obviously outsell Florida or Phoenix.

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12-team Keeper pool, straight points for forwards & dmen. Goalies get: 2 points per win, 3 per shutout, 1 point per assist & 1 point per shootout loss.

Top 8 forwards, 5 dmen and 2 goalies count.

We keep 8 forwards, 5 dmen, 2 goalies & 1 rookie.

Forwards: Malkin, Stamkos, Getzlaf, Hall, Kunitz, St. Louis, Kadri, Gaborik, Hartnell, Brunner, Weiss, Bouchard, McDonald, Connolly
Defence: Letang, Enstrom, Schultz, Markov, Keith, Carle
Goalies: Price, Niemi, Brodeur

My personal blog: http://theryancokeexperience.wordpress.com

I've never realized that the leafs never host a "shitty" team on a Saturday until I was a season ticket holder last year.

Isles, Yotes, Blue Jackets, etc always came into town mid week. Usually Tuesday games.

Sat HNIC games are pretty much reserved for Ottawa, Rangers, Philly, Boston, Washington. Original 6, rivalries, or other big marketing teams. Im sure this is identical in other markets as well.

Never realized it till last year though. Selling a Tuesday night game against the Islanders was a bitch!

Selling a Sat night game against the Islanders, and a Tuesday night game against Montreal would have been a lot more profitable!! Never happened.

Hah yeah, it's always been like that. Can you imagine Hockey Night in Canada with the Leafs taking on the Panthers!?!? What a waste viewer-ship that would be lol

Another reason for the disparity in fortunes between the big market and small market teams.

Most fans don't pay to see individual players. Most fans pay to see their teams win. Also the issue with losing teams is that they usually don't have enough depth.

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H2H Each Cat - Yahoo - 14 teams - Cap Hit
Start: 2C 2LW 2RW 4D 2U 2G 7B
Cats: G A +- PIM SOG PPG PPA SHP GWG FW HIT W GAA SV SV% SO
Svalbard Armored Bears:
C: Getz, M Richards(LW), Turdis, Little
LW: Kovy(RW), Moulson, Kunitz, _
RW: Eriksson(LW), Clarkson, _, _
D: Pietrangelo, JJ, Streit, Spurgeon, Brodie, Nikitin
G: Lundqvist, Holtby, Harding
JV: Tarasenko, Bishop, Eakin, Killorn, Grigorgenko, Grimaldi, Collberg, Faksa, Lindholm, Irving

I don't know. I think first and foremost people are going to see their team. Then if this is a special occassion (they don't go to every game of the season) they will try to get the most entertaining game. If that means there will be superstars on the ice then that's what they will go for. But I think the most important marketing strategy for teams is winning games.

Also I remember seeing an aweful lot of Talbot jerseys in Pittsburgh before he signed in Philly. People definitely have an appreciation for those depth players who help their teams win games and they know and love these players too.

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H2H Each Cat - Yahoo - 14 teams - Cap Hit
Start: 2C 2LW 2RW 4D 2U 2G 7B
Cats: G A +- PIM SOG PPG PPA SHP GWG FW HIT W GAA SV SV% SO
Svalbard Armored Bears:
C: Getz, M Richards(LW), Turdis, Little
LW: Kovy(RW), Moulson, Kunitz, _
RW: Eriksson(LW), Clarkson, _, _
D: Pietrangelo, JJ, Streit, Spurgeon, Brodie, Nikitin
G: Lundqvist, Holtby, Harding
JV: Tarasenko, Bishop, Eakin, Killorn, Grigorgenko, Grimaldi, Collberg, Faksa, Lindholm, Irving

I forget where it was mentioned about player salaries and normal distribution and such... however I will throw out some info here:

According to NHLnumbers.com about 796 players counted towards the cap in 2011/2012. They ranged from Ovi at a cap hit north of 9mil to Stephen Gionta at 0.006 mil (1 game, league minimum).

The average cap hit was 1.966mil per player, the mid-point cap hit was lower at 1.2mil. Standard deviation was 1.88mil.
About 77% of players are +/- 1 StDev of the average. Only 5.5% are more than 2 StDevs away from the mean. Not that far off a normal distribution by these measures.

Incidentally, the average for games played was about 54 (53.8) and the mid-point was 63.

Notes
This data only pertained to cap hits for players in 2011/2012 so minor leaguers (Redden) or injured players (Savard) are not included. Goalies are also not included.
There is some question regarding consistency of their compilation with regards to players like Crosby who only played 22 games yet had a cap hit over 8mil listed.
On the whole though I'd say it is a fair ballpark look at salaries.

Anyway, make of it what you will.

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Okay, so maybe nobody likes a cynic, but everybody f**king hates those perky optimists!

... and anyway, I make a damn good cynic.

I think that (in order to determine if "overpaid" might be an accurate description) a more relevant analysis would be looking at salary growth over the years.

< All the while, keeping in mind that 2/3 of the league is unprofitable >


Since 1991, which is not really that long ago, average salaries have gone from:
271,000 to 2,440,381 (so a multiple of about 9)

Too long of a timeframe?

Ok, how about from 2007...

Since 2007, average salaries have gone from:
1,666,063 to 2,440,381 (so an increase of about 46.5%)


In the past 5 years, average salaries have increased 46.5% while 2/3 of the franchises currently lose money, and the PA has the audacity to say in negotiations "what have the owners given us?!"

Hilarious.

2/3 lose money? What owner koolaid are you drinking?

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GO WINGS!

12 team H2H dynasty, most categories under the sun, incl. hits/blocks. Main team, farm

C: Kopitar Backstrom Stepan Cammalleri Little Bolland Laich Johnson
LW: Parise Lupul Erat McDonald Martin Silfverberg Nyquist Schwartz Morin Nieto Conacher
RW: PKane Doan Pominville Nash Clowe Lupul Rinaldo Stafford Rattie Stone Chiasson Ritchie
D: Green Suter Seabrook Dillon Beauchemin Schenn Letang Schultz Hamilton McNabb Rielly Harrison
G: Bryzgalov Pavelec Holtby Neuvirth Nihlstorp Lack CalPickard Andersen Stalock Sateri Eriksson
IR: Halak

My bad, 2/3 aren't profitable. Better?

(roughly) 1/3 make money, 1/3 break even, and 1/3 in the red

Although I do consider "break even" a loss in the sense that there's an enormous opportunity cost involved with running a franchise that has to struggle just to break even. It seems like an unsustainable model to witness that kind of salary growth with 2/3 of the franchises not generating a profit.

Salary growth is directly tied to league revenue growth via the salary cap. If the league had meaningful revenue sharing (like the NFL) then the number of money losing clubs would come down. Claiming that players have been making out like bandits at the expense of the owners is a bit misleading.

Was 57% too high? Yes.

But here's the part that WILL BLOW YOUR EFFING MIND: If the cap was set at 40% in 2005 then salaries would still have grown by 46.5% since 2007. Your argument is bunk, player salary growth since the last lock-out neither proves nor disproves any position save the leagues claims of revenue growth.

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Okay, so maybe nobody likes a cynic, but everybody f**king hates those perky optimists!

... and anyway, I make a damn good cynic.