No Sale

Don't buy it.

Sorry, but I don't believe the Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby's, calls of "hometown discount" and "not wanting to leave Shero with empty pockets" either.

First of all the Penguin Scum already jettisoned Michel Ouellet because they were afraid of the arbitration award he was going to get this summer. Secondly, the Penguin Scum have already added Dany Sabourin, Darryl Sydor, and Petr Sykora to their roster. The Penguin Scum only have Colby Armstrong left who is going into arbitration and won't get anywhere near the upper limit of the salary cap this season and are running out of roster space for additional players.

Oh, it only starts to count against next year's cap? That's very true and I am well aware of that,I am also well aware that next year Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, Ryan Malone, Georges Laraque, Jarkko Ruutu, and Mark Eaton are UFA and Brooks Orpik is RFA. $31.509 million in cap space, including Cindy's extension, is already committed for next year with just 11 players under contract. By contrast with 19 players under contract for this upcoming season and Armstrong heading into arbitration, $39.378 million of cap space is committed.

Oh I forgot another RFA next year, Marc-Andre Fleury. Think he's going to want a raise over his $1.6 million salary?

I'm having trouble buying this whole "trying to keep the team together" nonsense. The Penguin Scum will eventually lose fossils Recchi and Roberts and considering the deplorable state of their minor league system, they'll have to replace those (and other graybeards) through either trades or more likely, the UFA market. The UFA market is traditionally overpriced rejected talent. A contract like Cindy's is dependant upon the salary cap increasing by leaps and bounds in order for the Penguin Scum to remain competitive but with the lack of talent coming through their system, they're dependant upon the UFA market which will make maneuvers very difficult.

But there's an even more to dump on this. All Cindy has done is forfeit her arbitration rights and one single year of UFA with the five year extension. Odds are very good that the Penguin Scum will extend Cindy once again in 2012 and let's see if she is willing to take only a million less than the maximum contract then.

Finally, I am well aware that A.O. and Alexander Semin are UFA's RFA's (that's what I get for typing these things in a hurry) next year in line for significant pay raises that could break the Caps budget. The Caps have $16.171 million of cap space committed to 7 players next season. The Caps also have a deeper pool of prospects to tap into should they end up with too much $$$$$ tied up into a handful of players.

Many fans have wondered why and complained loudly about the Caps saving so much cap space. This my friends is why.