Crazy world

Lowe worried about affording Smyth after arbitration

By Robert Tychkowski, SLAM! Sports

In St. Louis, the Blues are gullible enough to pay Doug Weight $8 million a year and Keith Tkachuk $10 million, contributing to a bloated financial climate that results in an arbiter awarding Pavol Demitra $6.5 million.

In New York, Peter Nedved has a $4.75-million a-year contract after scoring 46 and 58 points in the last two years. In Columbus, career third-liner Todd Marchant signed a deal that will pay him $3 million a year for the next six years.

In Toronto, a female arbiter who for all we know has never seen Ryan Smyth play hockey in her life, will study numbers like those in a hearing Thursday and decide what Smyth will earn this year -- in effect deciding whether or not he'll ever play for Edmonton again.

No wonder Kevin Lowe isn't happy.

Control of his budget, his team's future and the future of one of his best and most popular players has been taken out of his hands and turned over to a system so out of touch with reality it's laughable.

"I thought Ryan would be different," sighed Lowe, adding arbitration is the last place he wanted to go with the hard-working, blood-and-guts winger he once called the prototypical Oiler. "But I don't expect any favours from him. It's up to him where he wants to be, where he wants to raise his family."

The way Lowe sees it, Smyth should be happy with the same deal he had last year. Naturally Smyth's camp disagrees. Barring a last-minute settlement they'll argue their cases Thursday and let the judge decide.

"I don't think he deserves a raise," said Lowe. "Does anybody deserve a raise when he's already making $3 million and the team hasn't won a playoff round?

"I'm happy with what he's making right now. It's a lot of money for anybody. Based on our building being full, $3 million is palatable, but beyond that it would put pressure on things."

Some of Smyth's strongest attributes are intangibles that don't register on a sliding scale and he does have some durability issues, and Boston's Brian Rolston (who has 179 points over the last three years compared with 181 for Smyth) won $3.175 million from an arbiter last week, so a $5 million award that would very likely mean the end of Smyth's days in Edmonton is remote... but you never know.

"We've seen some wacky stuff out of arbitration hearings," said Lowe. "The people making these decisions aren't the most astute hockey people.

"To be honest, we think the [arbiter's decision] will be palatable, but with me the issue of going to arbitration is more philosophical. It's about asking somebody when is enough enough?

"I know I could convince the owners to do a five- or six-year deal with Ryan and let him be an Oiler forever. He'd have all the money he would ever need. He's already made $11.6 million in Edmonton. He's got a great life, he's a western Canadian kid, he has a nice house, he likes the team, he's adored by the fans and the city. He already has financial security for life, and for the lives of his grandkids. But that's not enough? It should be this much more because somebody else is making that?

"You wonder about a guy's commitment to the program. Why grind it out for another $1 million? That's what we need to ask."

It's what Lowe and everybody who has to shell out $100 a ticket asks every time a new NHL contract comes down the pike.

Fact is, Ryan Smyth needs another million like Kerry Fraser needs more hair. If he never gets a nickel raise for the rest of his career, he'll earn another $21 million before he's 35. In the real world, that's a hell of a deal. Lifelong luxury and security for you and everyone you'll ever care about in exchange for 10 seasons of playing a boy's game.

But in the make-believe world of the NHL, reality has been so clouded by years of excess and stupidity that nobody's jaw hits the floor when a player making $5 million a year says he needs $6 million. We throw around figures like $8 million for one season and don't even choke on our words anymore.

"Everybody is caught up in the mode of just accepting it," said Lowe, who isn't going to do that anymore. "We have to keep one eye on the market that exists all around us, but I'm less accepting of just burying my head in the sand and saying we're going to pay it just because everybody else is paying it. It's not just me, it's from the ownership on down.

"We can't just let agents hang their hats on the market anymore. That argument is washing down the drain as quickly as this whole system is."

Smyth isn't the villain here. He plays as hard as anyone and is just operating within a system that owners and players both agreed to during the last labour stoppage. Besides, everybody else is doing it.

But if everybody else jumped off a bridge, or decided to pay Martin Lapointe $5.5 million a year, would you do it, too?

Lowe says no.

"If I can be one of the guys trying to hammer some sense into things, then I will," he said, adding there are enough positives to playing in Edmonton to outweigh the financial "sacrifices."

"There's a price to pay to be an Oiler and be in our program. And I don't think it's that huge when you're making that kind of money already."

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