When digging around the internets, as we like to jokingly call them at times, you find some classic things that just add to an article or your contention about a point or group of points. In our inane search to look at how teams like Chicago, Philly, even SJ and Boston, would find ways to ease their cap troubles….we looked back at some of the old time salaries, when things are a little more outrageous. Some of the following numbers are going to shock a few. This table that we found takes salaries from about the 92-93 season all the way up to pre-lockout (2003-04).
So here are those old classic payrolls. I heard many screams out there so this cannot be good.
NHL Payrolls
(in $US millions)
| 1992- 1993 |
1995- 1996 |
1998- 1999 |
1999- 2000 |
2000- 2001 |
2001- 2002 |
2002- 2003 |
2003- 2004 |
|
| Anaheim | – | 14.2 | 30.4 | 35.1 | 38.5 | 36.9 | 39.0 | 54.4 |
| Atlanta | – | – | – | 16.7 | 19.1 | 22.3 | 26.0 | 27.2 |
| Boston | 9.6 | 20.2 | 22.8 | 24.5 | 31.1 | 40.8 | 37.3 | 45.8 |
| Buffalo | 11.2 | 18.4 | 26.1 | 30.9 | 35.4 | 28.6 | 31.1 | 33.0 |
| Calgary | 8.8 | 16.0 | 20.7 | 21.6 | 28.5 | 28.3 | 33.3 | 35.2 |
| Carolina (Hart.) | 8.9 | 19.3 | 28.6 | 27.1 | 31.5 | 33.0 | 39.2 | 37.8 |
| Chicago | 11.4 | 21.2 | 35.8 | 32.4 | 31.8 | 37.6 | 44.5 | 31.6 |
| Colorado (Que.) | 8.1 | 20.6 | 30.8 | 41.5 | 50.5 | 49.0 | 60.1 | 60.9 |
| Columbus | – | – | – | – | 19.2 | 23.5 | 28.2 | 32.1 |
| Dallas (Minn.) | 10.1 | 19.1 | 39.8 | 42.3 | 49.7 | 57.3 | 61.7 | 67.6 |
| Detroit | 11.7 | 28.5 | 48.3 | 43.4 | 54.1 | 64.4 | 68.0 | 77.8 |
| Edmonton | 8.5 | 11.4 | 21.9 | 24.0 | 25.6 | 26.7 | 30.9 | 30.8 |
| Florida | – | 16.2 | 31.8 | 33.3 | 38.5 | 37.7 | 32.7 | 26.4 |
| Los Angeles | 14.1 | 26.5 | 30.6 | 34.6 | 35.8 | 41.9 | 43.3 | 46.1 |
| Minnesota | – | – | – | – | 15.3 | 18.2 | 20.5 | 26.8 |
| Montreal | 10.3 | 17.9 | 33.5 | 33.8 | 30.3 | 37.2 | 48.6 | 42.7 |
| Nashville | – | – | 13.6 | 16.6 | 19.6 | 21.0 | 25.2 | 23.2 |
| New Jersey | 9.6 | 21.0 | 27.7 | 31.3 | 35.7 | 40.1 | 52.4 | 48.1 |
| NY Islanders | 9.4 | 16.6 | 21.3 | 18.1 | 24.2 | 34.4 | 41.7 | 43.8 |
| NY Rangers | 14.8 | 31.8 | 39.8 | 59.4 | 55.5 | 57.3 | 69.2 | 77.0 |
| Ottawa | 4.5 | 12.6 | 21.0 | 21.7 | 27.2 | 27.0 | 30.3 | 39.6 |
| Philadelphia | 11.8 | 20.2 | 39.4 | 50.3 | 40.7 | 55.8 | 56.0 | 65.1 |
| Phoenix (Win.) | 9.2 | 20.9 | 28.0 | 31.0 | 36.5 | 30.2 | 44.3 | 37.8 |
| Pittsburgh | 15.2 | 22.6 | 23.8 | 30.3 | 31.0 | 31.8 | 31.2 | 26.6 |
| San Jose | 6.9 | 16.8 | 35.6 | 37.6 | 35.8 | 44.3 | 47.8 | 34.8 |
| St.Louis | 10.6 | 24.9 | 31.3 | 32.6 | 35.8 | 57.7 | 63.1 | 61.2 |
| Tampa Bay | 6.9 | 14.2 | 28.5 | 19.0 | 18.3 | 27.0 | 28.9 | 33.5 |
| Toronto | 9.2 | 21.8 | 34.0 | 34.0 | 42.4 | 48.7 | 54.3 | 61.8 |
| Vancouver | 8.8 | 25.4 | 28.2 | 34.0 | 28.2 | 28.9 | 31.8 | 38.7 |
| Washington | 10.3 | 15.7 | 31.0 | 28.3 | 34.5 | 53.2 | 50.7 | 51.1 |
| AVERAGE | 10.0 | 19.8 | 29.8 | 31.6 | 33.3 | 38.0 | 42.4 | 44.0 |
Sources: The Hockey News, La Presse, Le Droit, Star-Tribune
Year |
Average team payroll |
% change |
Standard deviation |
Team cap | Player cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005–06 | $34,309,972 | -22.73% | $6,371,263 | $39,000,000 | $7,800,000 |
| 2006–07 | $40,292,446 | 17.44% | $4,720,484 | $44,000,000 | $8,800,000 |
| 2007–08 | $44,369,521 | 10.12% | $7,573,225 | $50,300,000 | $10,060,000 |
| 2008–09 | $51,387,176 | 15.82% | $7,968,239 | $56,700,000 | $11,340,000 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | ||||||
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You can search any team on their database but there is one definite thing I learned about crunching all these numbers. There are a lot of them that just point to the fact that a lockout was pointless as we all knew all along. Philadelphia’s total payroll was listed at 58.225 million dollars last season. The thing is when you take a peak at numbers via nhlnumbers.com….you get another picture as well. Obviously, one sees the player contracts and Capgeek shows you a variety of ways to see cap space or lack thereof.
Chicago’s trade last night allowed them to actually be able to make qualifying offers. Now they still have some work left to do but they now have five picks in the first 60. Other teams are probably looking at this as a way out but the reality is there will be a lot more trades similar to this. By the way Atlanta shipped off Colin Fraser to Edmonton for a 6th rounder to essentially complete last night’s trade.
The question becomes this…..what else will happen this weekend? There are tons of speculation abound that some pretty significant deals will go down. Okay readers…..whay else may transpire over the next 72 hours?
