Power Surge

As I am sure many of you have noticed, this new NHL and its ever notorious salary cap due to the lockout of 2004-2005 is in place now to prevent the long lasting winning traditions of the NHL to that point and give way to youth movements and a new style of play. The implementation of the European way of playing and taking a lot of the North American physical aspect out of the game as made for a more finessed based style of play, thus making the enforcer more rare to find than a wolverine. But again, I digress...

The point I was getting at is even with this salary cap, the dynasty type teams have thinned out, but certainly wont be non existent as we may be seeing many beginning to for with the birth of this new trend of what I like to call lifetime contracts. As an NHL fan base, we're all aware of the notorious 15 year contract to Rick DiPietro, the 13 year to Alex Ovechkin, the 11 year extension to Vinny LeCavalier, 11 year extension to Johan Franzen and the recent 12 year signing of Marian Hossa in Chicago. These, coupled with many others are how the NHL and its players have responded to this cap. The same amount of ridiculous millions, over a long period of time allows their payments to be thinned, thus have little impact on the cap. In addition, players get some much needed job security where otherwise in the country is lacking. The point being, this cap has turned out to be extremely beneficial to the players as individuals and has only given the NHL teams new was in which to build their winning traditions.

Those of you still in disagreement with me on the fact that I think the cap has been more beneficial and that better dynasties can be built, well here's more...

When you look at the recent winners in the NHL, teams like the Detroit Red Wings it is clear to see that this dynasty hasn't succumb to the new cap because they are still going 18 years strong without missing the playoffs. Aside from being in awe of that number, it makes you wonder how that withstood the changing league and held its strong hold on its winning ways. Well, they simply bought into the new system and manipulated it (coupled with a little luck of course). They sign veteran Chris Osgood back a few years ago and get phenomenal Stanley cup caliber play that he demonstrated years back in 1997. Johan Franzen, a Detroit draft product turns out to be a stud and is inked to a 11 year extension. A core of veterans wants to stay around and they don't demand the amount of money they could elsewhere (Draper, Chelios, Holmstrom) and young inexpensive kids provided spark and talent as well (Abdelkader, Helm, Filppula, Hudler). Add that with a few others and its no wonder they not only make the playoffs every year, but go far too.

Now, as far as new dynasties go, we just may be seeing some develop right before our eyes, starting with Montreal. Firstly, they have drafted well and left themselves with some undisputed talent in this league (Price, Kostitsyn x2, Plekanec, Halak etc) and have been able to establish a core of veterans through both trade and free agency that will undoubtedly form what I predict to be the Stanley Cup Champions of 2010. These players include Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri, Jaroslav Spacek and Hal Gill. This is not adding the fact that they could end up being able to bring Koivu, Kovalev or both back for next season, only adding to their potential.

What I am getting at is teams this front loaded with talent are not supposed to exist within this new NHL. Teams like the before mentioned Canadiens and Red Wings are going against that the league had intended by the salary cap.

In contrast, other dynasties may be forming in the likes of Pittsburgh and Chicago, as the Penguins and Blackhawks are becoming league wide powerhouses, but they did it in a different way, a way in which the league and Gary Bettman intended for. They basically drafted their winning ways. With Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury and others in Pittsburgh celebrating their first championship you can see how well this strategy worked. Of course there were a substantial amount of veteran roll players that had their hand in the success of the Penguins as well.

Although the Blackhawks have built up through the draft, they have also lured in some pretty big fish via free agency. That makes me place this team somewhere in the middle. The drafting of guys by the names of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Kris Versteeg have without question out the Blackhawks where they are today, but the signings and acquisitions of people like Brian Campbell, Cristobal Huet, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Tomas Kopecky and John Madden, the Blackhawks have become more then just a good team, but a legitimate contender.

Up and growing franchises, that look to be following in the footsteps of the Penguin and Blackhawk type teams include the Coyotes (Mueller, Boedker, Turris) the Islanders (Tavares, Bailey, DiPietro, Okposo) and the Capitals (Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, Alzner) who already are making themselves very known through the league.

As you can see, dynasties are not something that can be kept out of hockey with a simple salary restriction or anything else. Players in this league love to win, whether it be by taking a pay cut or sticking around through a rebuild of a franchise, the commitment is better than ever. So dynasties can try to be prevented and rules can be implemented that make it harder for them to form, but they still will.

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) said it best in Jurassic Park. "If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, expands to new territory, and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously."

The same with dynasties, you can hope to control and contain, but they will inevitably break free.


-Bryan