The contract is heavily front-loaded, with Briere to make $10 million next season -- double what he made last year. He'll then make $8 million in the next two years and $7 million during the 2010-13 seasons. The contract then tapers off with Briere scheduled to make $3 million in 2013-14 and $2 million in the final year of the deal.
You know that wouldn't fly if Boras or Rosenhaus had their fingers in this cookie jar. They could probably negotiate a 3-year, $35 million deal for Gordie Howe, citing Moses as a precedent for his expected physical stamina and "leadership ability," and nobody would bat an eyelid. The stiffs at the NHL's business offices need to know how lucky they are to not have these types of guys around.
On the other hand, the NHL's main employees--the players--are not so lucky. This incredibly logical way of placing the correct value on the diminishing athletic abilities of aging players is not accepted with such sangfroid in any other major professional sports league. Then again, the players' union in any other MPSL (I like time-saving acronyms) isn't even close to the unprecedented level of weakness of the NHL's. After the 2004-05 lockout--which I recall as a few vague memories of weeping Canadians--players returned to face the bitter reality that an entire season of hockey was canceled and few people cared. Goodbye leverage. Hello peanuts.
Even though I think the NHL's product has improved by leaps and bounds since then, I'm not yet disheartened by this shift in the balance of power. You have to figure the owners aren't making a hell of a lot of money either, not when your team's "national exposure" is roughly once a month on a channel anchored by televised rodeos and karate competitions. Too bad the players don't have quite as much to fall back on anymore.
But hey--if P. Diddy and the Phillies starting rotation have taught us anything, it's that mo money equates to mo problems. Enjoy this period of fiscal sanity while it lasts, hockey fans.
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