The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

The whole point of the 2004-2005 lockout year was to curtail salaries and put a cap system in place so big market teams like the New York Rangers couldn't spend money on outrageous contracts on players who don't deserve it, so in turn, the small market (read: Canadian) teams can retain their star players they develop and compete on an even level with their large market counterparts.

Or so that's the way my thinking goes.

So when the Oilers opted not to re-sign Smyth for what was reported to be a dispute over $100K a year, I stopped and thought to myself, "What star players are the Oil spending their money on that they had to trade Ryan Smyth away to the New York Islanders?"

The Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames are flirting with keeping under the cap level with their current payrolls. The Montreal Canadiens have lots of cap space although in fairness, they will likely reach that level if they attempt to keep Sheldon Souray. Anyway, the Oilers roster currently has only 1 player making $4 million, and that's goalie Dwayne Roloson. The next player makes $3.6 million and that's centre Shawn Horcoff.

Contrast that to the Flames, who have Jarome Iginla at $7 million and Alex Tanguay at just over $5 million. The Senators have Wade Redden, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson making $6.5, $4.5 and $4.7 million each.

My point of all this? It seems some teams are interested in spending to field a winner, and it seems the Oilers do not fall in that category and have no ability to keep their star players. The cap system was put in place to help teams like the Oilers: a small market Canadian team who'd cry foul when the Washington Capitals would sign Jaromir Jagr to an $11 million a year contract. How can they possibly keep guys like Doug Weight and Bill Guerin when they can't afford to pay that kind of salary?

The cap supposedly solved that problem, but the Oil currently have zero stars on their roster and don't look much different than the pre-lockout era. With all due respect to Roloson, he had an amazing Spring last year and not much else. Hemsky, Horcoff and Pisani are not in the same league as the Hossas and Thorntons of the league.

Despite a trip to the Cup final, Mike Peca and Chris Pronger left Edmonton and play elsewhere. All that was left of marquee value was Ryan Smyth, who played with the Oilers for over 10 seasons.

Now that he's gone, what does an Oiler fan have to look forward to?