Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By TOM JONES, Times Staff WriterNew salary cap means Tampa Bay probably can't keep all its key players.
When the Lightning takes the ice on opening night in October, it might be without goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. Or MVP Martin St. Louis. Or star center Vinny Lecavalier.
There's a chance that either Ruslan Fedotenko, the hero of last year's Game 7 of the final, or Dan Boyle, the team's top offensive defenseman, might not be here.
A veteran such as Dave Andreychuk or Tim Taylor might end up a salary-cap casualty. A prospect such as Eric Perrin might have to be let go.
"In a perfect world," general manager Jay Feaster said, "we'll bring everyone back. But ... "
Things are not perfect in the NHL, not with a new salary cap expected to be set at about $39-million. Feaster's elation Wednesday that the NHL and players' union reached a tentative agreement to end the lockout lasted about three seconds.
"It's tempered more because I know the work that is ahead of us," Feaster said.
First things first. The league and union must vote to accept the new collective-bargaining agreement, and that won't happen until next week. Everyone from players to executives to agents stresses the details of the new CBA are not known.
But soon after the agreement is officially announced, Feaster must pull out his depth chart, cell phone and, especially, his calculator and begin calling player agents in order to reassemble his Stanley Cup championship team.
It won't be easy.
If the reports of the agreement are accurate, the Lightning, at first glance, appears in good shape. It won a Stanley Cup with a payroll of a little more than $33-million, and the players just agreed to a 24 percent rollback in salaries. The Lightning's current payroll of players under contract sits at just over $15-million. Assuming it doesn't buy out any of those contracts, the team has nearly $24-million to spend under the cap.
But the first glance is deceiving. Here's where it gets scary.The Lightning has 13 players who are free agents, including stars Khabibulin, St. Louis, Lecavalier, Boyle and Fedotenko. Those five alone could chew up most of that $24-million. Then the Lightning would be left with little or no money to sign anyone else.
"And," Feaster said, "you can't go out there with 16 skaters."
The biggest decision facing Feaster regards Khabibulin,
"Well, it's premature to even talk about this because we haven't seen the CBA yet, but it's our intention to negotiate in good faith first with the Lightning," said Jay Grossman, Khabibulin's agent. "Nik likes Tampa Bay and would love to repeat, but we don't know what will happen because we haven't seen the CBA."
Grossman is smart enough to recognize his client likely will be the most sought-after free agent of the offseason because he plays such an important position and is only 32. Plus, he's unrestricted, meaning the Lightning can't retain him by matching the offer and won't get compensation if he signs elsewhere.
Several teams, most notably the Red Wings, reportedly are interested in Khabibulin. Under the agreement, players cannot earn more than 20 percent of the salary cap, and it's likely the Red Wings will offer Khabibulin the full 20 percent.
To have a chance to entice Khabibulin back, the Lightning would have to offer the same.
Then there's St. Louis. As league MVP, he could argue that no one is more deserving to make the maximum. Lecavalier could reasonably ask for $7-million, too. There are bound to be teams willing to offer that kind of money to St. Louis and Lecavalier. If the Lightning paid all three the maximum, they would make $23.4-million among them. That leaves about a million (not nearly enough) to sign everyone else, including Boyle and Fedotenko.
St. Louis said he wants to stay in Tampa Bay. So does Lecavalier. Andreychuk wants to come back for another season. Fedotenko and Boyle prefer Tampa Bay.
But there is only so much money to go around.
Feaster's only hope to retain everyone is to offer long-term deals. Maybe the security of a four- or five-year deal would persuade St. Louis or Lecavalier to take less of a salary. But the scary part of offering long-term deals is what happens if league revenues - and the salary cap - decrease in future seasons?
The good news for Feaster is Tampa Bay likely will have time - probably a week - when he has exclusive negotiating rights with his free agents. His intent, for now, is to re-sign his players even though the free-agent market is expected to be flooded with stars willing to take big pay cuts. He said he isn't about to think of free agency as a "candy store."
"We are the defending Stanley Cup champions for a reason, and these guys understand (coach) John (Tortorella), they understand our system, they understand how we want to play," Feaster said. "We believe we've assembled the right guys to play within that system. We became successful when we started to have stability. We identified the core, stopped the revolving door. That's when we started to win. I'm not looking to run a rotisserie team. I'm looking to keep the Tampa Bay Lightning together."
The problem is that might not be easy. Or even possible.