Blueshirt Bulletin Main August 08, 2005 Desserts, Just and Unjust Jeremy Jacobs led the charge. Now his team, the Bruins, are being hung out to dry. Kevin Dupont of the Boston Globe analyzes the first week of free agency under the new CBA and comes to the conclusion that the B's screwed themselves over. Unable make that unwilling to pay the price that big name UFAs are getting even under the salary cap, they now face the prospect of newly-inflated expectations for impending free agents Joe Thornton [left] and Sergei Samsonov. Currently RFAs without contracts, they stand to benefit from the big bucks being handed out to Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla, Milan Hejduk, and others RFAs who theoretically should have no leverage to command that kind of pay this early in their careers. Jacobs was willing to give away free agency for guaranteed profits now he has to pay the piper. Good for him! Not so good for Colorado, the perfect example of how screwy the new system is. This franchise was a model for success under the old CBA: draft and develop players wisely, make good trades and strategic signings, and win. Winning turned a market that had once failed the NHL, when the Rockies stunk up the joint, into a big market, enabling construction of a new arena that catalyzed revenue and profit, and establishment of a new regional cable network. Now, the new CBA forces that team to break itself up, and right away there are fears of an erosion in gate receipts. At some point, people will realize what was really lost in this CBA war, the dismantling of a system that was disarmingly simple in construct: Winning = Profits. No more. | |
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