Jews in Sports: WORTHY WALLET

by Yossi Goldstein

Who could have foretold of outrageous contracts given to lesser talent and players’ wallets becoming bloated due to an increase in the Salary Cap floor and ceiling in a sport not called ‘baseball?’

I’m talking hockey and its off-ice summer spectacle known as “Free Agency.”

The July signing fest is well under way having already resulted in a bevy of hefty contracts divvied out to the likes of third and fourth-line players who are solid skater but far from deserving of such fiscal figures.

Examples of this egregious lack of monetary restraint can be found in Buffalo, where gazillionaire owner Terry Pegula dished out a 10-year, front-loaded, $40 million deal for Christian Ehrhoff who just came off a career-best 50-point campaign with San Jose. Additionally, former New York Islander and Montreal Canadien defenseman, James Wisniewski, inked a bloated six-year $33 million deal with Columbus, setting the early trend for teams overpaying for lesser quality talent.

It almost seems fair to surmise that were any person able to handle a hockey puck on his stick while skating nimbly on ice, he would command life-long sustenance by way of a multi-year contract with a team – Florida, Carolina, Winnipeg, to name a few – that needs to overspend in order to reach the Cap floor.

All fairness aside, this off-season has been billed the “Free Agent Frenzy” in the lead-up to the market’s opening bell. We cannot blame players’ agents for nabbing those numbers; they played by the rules and found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The New York Rangers bound itself with first-class center Brad Richards (nine-years $60 million) in the hopes of rekindling the scoring lamp for its star winger, Mariak Gaborik. New Yorkers abound pray that with Richards as the key pivot on the power play, he’ll spark the sluggish penalty unit, having scored nearly 60 percent of his career points with the man-advantage and won’t end up being another 30-years-old bust [see Eric Lindros].

However, not all the new signings were met with bewilderment. Aside from Richards’ deal with the Blueshirts, veteran skater Jeff Halpern bid au revoir to Montreal, and the rest of French Canada, and took his talents back to his home turf.

The Potomac, Maryland native was called back Stateside by Bruce Boudreau and the Washington Capitals and the one-time Caps captain said oui to the one-year proposal by the D.C. sextet.

When I recently caught up with the charismatic and straight-shooting Member-of-The-Tribe, his love for Montreal was evident.

“Every city is fun to play in and has fantastic fans,” asserted Halpern. “Montreal is electric and even game-day has a different vibe. In other cities, when the team would conduct a hospital visit for the sick children during the holiday season, many of the kids didn’t really know who I, as a hockey player, was and I had to explain what hockey was about. In Montreal, though, as soon as I walked into the hospital rooms, I saw the kids all covered head-to-toe in Habs gear and crying with the joy of seeing a member of their favorite team in their room.”

However, when it came for one half of the so-called Yom Kippur line – current Habs forward Mike Cammalleri being the other Jew on the Canadiens – speaking about the differences between the American and French players, his cynicism was unmasked.

“I didn’t pay much attention to the papers up in Canada,” admitted Jeff, “but it was clear that French players get the benefit in Montreal. The fans are hard on guys who aren’t performing well but the French-speakers are the top of the class and get a bit more leeway.”

The undrafted Ivy Leaguer, Halpern, long ago established himself as a solid two-way center displaying his brain and brawn throughout his career and always giving credit where it’s due.

“While skating for coach [Jacques] Martin in Montreal I noticed his vast knowledge about the sport and fantastic understanding of the game,” said Halpern. “Jacques made sure guys were always chipping in and helping each other out. When that happened, it made for more cohesive team play. For me that was big because forechecking and chasing after loose pucks is a huge part of how I play.”

Halpern’s hockey career has been far from ordinary. Being overlooked at the Draft; becoming the first-ever local to captain the Capitals; even having the fortune of playing 83 games one year in the 82-game regular-season sport.

“I was traded midway through the 2007-08 season from the [Dallas] Stars to the [Tampa Bay] Lightning who had played one less game resulting in the quirk,” said a smirking Halpern. “Not many other players have ever done that.”

With Jeff now heading back to our Nation’s Capital, he reminisced with me about the art of penalty killing.

“The defense has to be good at reading options and it has to understand what opponents are looking for and are trying to accomplish on the power play. A key for the penalty killing unit is to limit difficult shots-on-goal enabling the goalie to make easier saves.”

Having been knocked out of the deciding Game Seven in the hard-fought opening-round of the past post-season by Andrew Ference of the eventual Stanley Cup champion Bruins, Halpern still maintains no ill-will towards the Alberta defenseman, even though it was a beheading attempt by the Beantowner.

“Its water under the bridge,” asserted Halpern. “Both teams wanted to advance and we were all playing very tough and competitive playoff hockey.”

Soft words from a kind man who will be counting his lucky charms next year.

OFF THE DRIBBLE:

If more NBA All-Stars follow New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams’ path overseas to play the sport while basketball owners lockout the players, the b-ball bosses may soon have to rethink their position of stature. It may bode well for them to realize sooner rather than later that their big-name players have elsewhere to turn and get paid for plying their craft beyond North America.

EXTRA BASES:

By going five-for-five, to include a long-ball in the bottom of the third inning yesterday at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter joined Wade Boggs (1999, Tampa Bay) as the only two players to reach the three-thousand-hit milestone with a home run. Yes it’s a special feat accomplished by only 28 players all-time, and now all this press and incessant chatter about the Yankee captain will finally cease. Derek, thank you for reaching the three-thousand hits-club and now everyone can move on with life!

POINT AFTER:

The Dallas Cowboys expect to have (real) training camp this week at the Alamo Dome. Does ‘Boys owner Jerry Jones know something most football fans don’t?

On that note, it cannot be a true NFL off-season without the usual Brett Favre melodrama. Indeed I heard whispers that he’s mulling, yet, another comeback, contrary to what he said after the Super Bowl (again). Brett, for sanity’s sake, STAY RETIRED!

8 Comments

  • pensburgh

    supply and demand buddy.. fact is there are no quality free agents this year. the money has to be spent.

    cant wait for pens/flyers rivalry to heat up this year with jagr

  • all-knowing

    The only reason the money had to be spent is b/c teams needed to reach the salary cap floor and not b/c there’s a lack of talent.

  • Canucks

    nobody know what they are talking about.

    4. ehrhoff played for san jose, then he played 2 seasons for Vancouver, THEN vancouver traded his signing rights to the new york islanders, who traded them to buffalo and he signed in buffalo.

  • Read before you write

    and it takes a canuck to figure this all out lol!!
    thanks man!