Scott Gomez (and Salary) Traded to the Habs

Salary Dump: Trading a good player with an inflated salary for the sole purpose of saving money.

Here’s how they usually work. Team A will trade the horrible contract to Team B. They will also throw in a blue-chip prospect for the effort. Team B usually sends back a couple of fringe players so it looks like a legit trade. It’s normally a win-win for two teams that have differing objectives. Team A wants to get the horrible contract off their books. Team B wants to add a high-end player and is willing to take on the contract, because they aren’t giving up any additional aspects.

5 more years at over $7 million per...

Apparently, Montreal Canadiens GM Bob GaineyHE doesn’t understand how a Salary Dump works. You see, he was the team that took the high priced superstar. But at some point during the negotiations, he got confused and thought was the one that was supposed to include the stud prospect in the deal. In the twitter world, they would call that a #tradefail.

Its no secret that Scott Gomez’s deal with the New York Rangers was one of the worst contract’s in the NHL (maybe all of sports). After signing 2 years ago as one of the most sought after free agents, he still has FIVE more seasons with a cap hit of $7.357 per season. Any way you cut it—that’s superstar type cheddar.

The Rangers broke the bank when they went out and bought both Scott Gomez and Chris Drury on the opening day of free-agency two years ago. Even though the salary cap was new and teams were learning the new economic world that the NHL would live in, the Rangers did what they had always done—bought players with no regard for future repercussions. Bobby Holik anyone?

Here’s the best analogy that I can come up with for the Rangers and the situation they were in with Scott Gomez. The Rangers went out and had to buy the biggest and the best HD-DVD player. There were some questionable reviews and people didn’t even know if HD-DVD or Blu-Ray was going to win the tech battle, but it was definitely all shiny and new. And to be honest, it was one of the best HD-DVD players that was going to be released that year. So despite the warning signs, they went ahead with a HUGE purchase.

Two year later, they have buyer’s remorse and want to go out and buy something new. Blu-Ray won, so their HD-DVD player is worth pennies on the dollar for what they paid for it. The only problem is that they have no money to go out and make said purchase. So before they can go feel the thrill of buying something, they had to first sell off that old model that they were sick of. They had to dump Scott Gomez, as it were.

It’s a little harsh to call Scott Gomez completely obsolete, but there’s no question that the Rangers terribly overpaid for him. Just because he’s paid like a superstar doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll PLAY like a superstar. Last season he graced the fans of Madison Square Garden with 58 points. Just to clarify, that wasn’t just at MSG. That was all season! To give you better frame of reference, he’s like Kristian Huselius or Matt Stajan with a much bigger man-purse wallet. Ouch.

At this point, why would anyone give up anything of value for a HD-DVD player? You’d be doing the seller a favor if you took it off their hands, right? So in this world of Ranger weakness, enter Montreal GM Bob Gainey. Not only did he trade Christopher Higgins, but he also included arguably the best prospect (and most NHL ready) in the entire Candidens organization with the departure of Ryan McDonagh. Just to review: the Canadiens traded away a proven NHL player who is productive and has very good character and their best prospect (a defenseman) and have pissed away any and all salary cap flexibility they had going into the offseason. Not for Vinny Lecavalier. Not even for Dany Heatley. No, they gave all that up for 5 years of Scott Gomez. Like I said: #tradefail.

Don’t underestimate the Lecavalier angle either. Ever since there have been whispers about Vinny’s availability because of Tampa’s apparent unwillingness to pay his gigantic salary, people in Quebec have been planning to give their salary cap space to the prodigal son. With the addition of Scott Gomez Scott Gomez’s contract, Hab fans can kiss that dream good bye. I hope they REALLY liked the Louis Leblanc draft pick—because that’s going to be the big French-Canadian acquisition this week.

Of course it’s too soon and stupid to start picking winners and losers of any trade the day it happens. There’s a line of thinking that says, “Whoever gets the best player in a trade, WINS!” In a vacuum without a salary cap, that very well may be true. But just take a step back and look at this trade with a bit of objectivity. Would you have made this trade? I know I wouldn’t—but then again, I don’t have the weight of francophones and the Molson family on my shoulders.

Besides, I like Newcastle more anyway.

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