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The almighty dollar St. Louis is good bargain, while Belfour is among ripoffsPosted: Sunday November 03, 2002 10:19 AM
With nearly four weeks of the season in the books, it's time to look at which players are delivering the most bang for the buck based on their salary and production. BargainsTampa Bay's Martin St. Louis is the best deal in the league right now, with 18 points and a $1 million salary. St. Louis is on pace to score 123 points, which would equal $8,130.08 per point. Though Mario Lemieux makes more than five times as much as St. Louis ($5.25 million), it's not a stretch to say that Super Mario still is a bargain. After all, he's paying himself that salary, too. Lemieux is on pace to finish with 201 points, meaning he would be paying himself $26,119.40 per point. Lemieux's coattails are one of the most comfortable places to hang out in professional sports, and Aleksey Morozov is the chief beneficiary this year. With a salary of $1.1 million, Morozov is close to St. Louis in dollars-per-point value. Having scored seven goals and nine assists, Morozov projects to a 119-point season at a cost of $9,243.70 per. Martin Gelinas was considered expendable by Carolina, but he has been a revelation playing with Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy on Calgary's top line. Gelinas had six goals and six assists through 11 games, putting him on pace for a career-high 89 points. At a $1.5 million salary, the budget-conscious Flames would be doling out just $16,853.93 for each of his points. While Sergei Zubov and Nicklas Lidstrom are familiar names atop the defensman scoring list, Dick Tarnstrom and Dan Boyle are probably known to few people outside of Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. Both Tarnstrom and Boyle have 11 points to tie Lidstrom and Tom Poti for second among blueliners. Based on his 90-point pace and $475,000 salary, Tarnstrom would set the Pens back just $5,277.77, and would surely be in the front of the line among players looking for huge raises for next season. Similarly, Boyle's 75-point pace and $850,000 salary yield a bargain-rate of $11,333.33 per point. While Doug Weight, Cory Stillman, Pavol Demitra and Al MacInnis are carrying the Blues offensively, Czech rookie Petr Cajanek has been a revelation. With two goals and seven assists, Cajanek has provided excellent playmaking from the pivot on the second line. And at a salary of just $700,000, Cajanek would cost St. Louis only $8,536.59 per point. Sure, 21,582,400 Koruny goes a long way in the Czech Republic, but it could already be time for Cajanek to ask for a renegotiation. Manny Fernandez is on pace for 41 wins. At his salary of $1.6 million, the Wild would be shelling out $39,024.39 per victory. Patrick Roy may be a better bet to finish with 41 wins, but at a salary of $8.5 million, St. Patrick would cost the Avs $207,317.07 for each win. Fernandez looks like a steal in the early going, especially if you consider that Atlanta's Milan Hnilicka is making a similar salary ($1.25 million) and has a 0-8 record with a 4.11 GAA and .883 save percentage. RipoffsFor someone with a $6.5 million salary, Ed Belfour's 2-4-2 record, 2.72 GAA and .902 save percentage are certainly disappointing. The Eagle clearly isn't soaring as high as he used to, and Toronto's struggles can partially be attributed to his inconsistent play. If Belfour starts two-thirds of the Leafs' games (54), at his current pace he would earn 40 points, which would work out to $162,500 per point. Bill Guerin was one of the marquee free agents signed in the offseason, garnering a five-year, $45 million deal from the Stars. This year's salary is for $8,732,890, a total that is 318 times the per capita income in the United States. While his scoring has tailed off after a quick start, Guerin still has five goals and five assists in 12 games. Guerin is on pace for a career-high 68 points, but that projects to $128,424.85 per point. Hey, Tom Hicks has plenty of money. And if he gets in a financial pinch, maybe A-Rod can lend him a few bucks to pay Guerin. The Rangers made Bobby Holik one of the highest-paid players in the game, but Holik's skills apparently didn't make it through the Holland Tunnel yet. Playing for $9.6 million this season, Holik has just one goal and one assist in 10 games, and missed Saturday's game with a hip injury. I know the boys on Broadway like to throw their money around like crazy, but $600,000 per point is a bit much, don't you think? The Blueshirts also dropped a ton of cash on Darius Kasparaitis, a hard-hitting, but skittish defenseman who often gets out of position and doesn't offer much offensively. Kaspar has been a disaster so far, with just two assists and a minus-9 rating in 13 games. Not much bang for the buck given his $4.1 million salary. Calgary is paying Rob Niedermayer $2.1 million to center its fourth line, and he has even been an occassional healthy scratch. The 27-year-old has just two assists and is a minus-7 in nine games, ugly numbers for a guy who put up 61 points as a member of the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers in 1995-96. But it could be worse, he could be ... Scott Niedermayer, Rob's older, more talented brother is chewing up $4 million for the Devils this season, but isn't producing as he has in the past. Still one of the best skating defensemen in the league, Niedermayer has just one assist in nine games and hasn't been able to get into the offensive flow. Chris Osgood was a pleasant surprise after the Islanders picked him up in the waiver draft before last season. Now, he is showing why the Red Wings exposed him in the first place. Osgood is pulling in $4 million this season, but has been miserable with a 3-4 record, a 4.67 GAA and an awful .793 save percentage. Martin Lapointe was signed to a monster contract by Boston in the summer of 2001. Fellow GMs rolled their eyes that the notoriously cheap Bruins would pay a third-line player more than $5 million per season. Lapointe scored just one goal in four games before breaking his ankle on Oct. 17, an injury that will keep him out until December. Even if he comes back in mid-December and plays in 56 games, at his $5.25 million salary, Lapointe would cost the Bruins $375,000 per goal based on a similar scoring pace of one goal every four games. Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for CNNSI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Jon? Click here. |
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