Double Think Friday: Five Thoughts About Career Earnings
CapGeek (basically the second best hockey website in the world) put out the list of the top 200 players in terms of career earnings, in history.
My first thought: Man, hockey players make more money than I could ever spend.
Second thought: KEITH TKACHUK!?!!?
No, but in all seriousness, yesterday CapGeek unveiled the top 200 career earners (since 1990), and it has some rather interesting Ottawa Senators related storylines. I passed them on to the group (via telepathy) and it was discovered that I had formed FIVE THOUGHTS.
So without further ado, here we go (note, before we go any further, you should take a look at the link)
1) Wade Redden: LOL at how high Wade Redden is on the list. Man that dude CASHED IN. 20th highest earner in NHL history?!? Wrap your noodle around that one. After playing for a series of larger contracts with the Senators, Redden cashed in on Glen Sather's insanity hunch and rode off into the sunset. Good for him.
2) Battle of the Ontario Swedes: They will always have things in common. Both were beloved captain's in Canadian cities as high scoring Swedish forwards. Both had great international records, but no Stanley Cups. Both left their clubs in strange ways, leading to mixed feelings from the fan bases. Often, we heard debates about each one and their case for the Hall of Fame, but at the end of the day: Mats Sundin made $13 million more in his career than Daniel Alfredsson did, and that seems like a lot.
3) Lowball: Speaking of Alfie, he has been paid roughly 61 million dollars by the Ottawa Senators in his lifetime. Read that again. Sure, tax. Sure, he was worth even more than that (see thought #2!). I understand his upset about the lack of respect shown to him with the lowball summer offer (and the other contractual issues previous). But when you've been paid 61 million dollars by one team in your life... He couldn't accept a 4 million dollar offer this time? A couple million less than his asking price? Yeesh.
4) Three Rich Captains: Alfie and Yashin have almost identical career earnings and this makes me laugh. Yashin was a gifted player, for a time. But he made a lot of money, and I mean A LOT of money off a few years of good play. And he held out for even more! Also of note: Jason Spezza is not far behind these two. Being the captain in Ottawa is probably not easy, with all of the scrutiny, but it sure pays well.
5) The Days of Old: We like to think "what if" about guys like Zdeno Chara and Marian Hossa, but with Melnyk's budget, we couldn't afford either of those guys. Both have made over 70 million dollars in their respective careers. The Senators couldn't even give Alfie an "off into the sunset" contract, they certainly could not afford Chara, Hossa, Alfie, Spezza AND Karlsson (not to mention, you know, the rest of the roster).