(Hat-tip to ManInTheBox for pointing me to this story.).
The Copper And Blue blog is the Oilers version of Ontheforecheck.com . The Oilers AHL team is the Oklahoma City Barons, a team that one might argue stocked up on 4A players, and spent some good cash to get them.
So with the help of capgeek.com, they put together some spreadsheets of each team’s opening night payroll for the conference. I encourage you to check it out, as the info is very interesting.
Some payrolls are high due to one-way contracts — Michael Nylander is making 3-mil to play in Rochester this year. But even taking him out of the equation, Rochester is still paying two players over $200,000.
The Wolves have 8 players making over $100k. Patrick Rissmiller (you may remember him from the game tying goal on Friday night) is making a million, Jason Krog is making $550k, Drew MacIntyre at $500k, and Darren Haydar 200k. Does this make them the Yankees of the division?
Just the salaries of Rissmiller and Krog eclipse that of the entire Admirals roster.
Tough to find any kind of correlation between payroll and team performance so far…we’re just too early in the season and the sample size is way too small. But let’s revisit this after teams play about 20 games. I’m hopeful that the smaller payrolls will make some noise and that playing with heart will elevate their performance. Tough to say how much heart 4A players still have once they’ve realized that they’re likely to be 4A players for awhile.
Admirals Roundtable 
Now I see why MacIntyre didn’t stay here… no way Nashville would pay him $500k at the AHL level…
BTW Ryan, the link to OnTheForeCheck.com in your opening sentence is linked to The Copper & Blue site… :)
Well that’s just plain sloppy!
I think I’ll fix that right now.
If I recall, Mac signed a two year deal with Atlanta, with the 2nd year being a one-way contract. Buyer’s remorse?
I suppose one correlation would be Pred playoff appearances, and Thrasher playoff appearances. Its always amazed me that Atlanta, gave the Wolves the leeway they have. Its funny but without the Blackhawks, there really wouldn’t be that market the Wolves have latched onto.
The Wolves are a weed, the Blackhawk organization has let grown in there garden.
“The Wolves are a weed, the Blackhawk organization has let grown in there garden.”
a) Insecure much?
b) Their, not there. Here’s a hint: http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-img/comics/misspelling/their.png
Fact: There will always be one (or multiple) teams spending more money than the rest of the league. Accept it, move on, and cheer against them if you disagree with it… and be glad you aren’t a fan of a team like Houston (of late) where management seems to have decided against bringing in any experienced vets. (Per Ryan’s link, and I use “any” loosely, as Drew Bagnall doesn’t count as blockbuster)
Maybe Houston can bring back Howe…again…
Maybe if Nashville wasn’t so poorly run/cheap….
huh?
I understand Nashville doesn’t go around throwing money, but the money that they do spend is spent VERY wisely. They are probably one of the smartest NHL teams when it comes to spending money.
Onegoodthing
My point was the Blackhawks have been playing hockey in Chicago since 1926.
By not televising home games until old man Writz died,they allowed the Wolves to grab a big piece of there market.
If the Hawks had televised home games,the Wolves would not be as strong as they are in the Chicago Market. The Hawks missed a lot of opps to be fan friendly, thus allowing the Wolves to become the weed in there hockey market.
Ryan: Interesting article and comments!
The poorly run thing was more of an issue with the financial end. They’re certainly a smart organization hockey wise, with really only few nitpicky exceptions..