Tuesday's news: Does the salary cap system deny Nashville a chance?

Not only does Ken Campbell forget the fact that the Preds were a Marty Erat pass away from taking control of the series against the Blackhawks, but an article on Forbes.com list of the 5 most cost effective NHL teams (payroll costs per win) list Nashville at #2.

Canada gets to boast about having three of the 5 LEAST cost effective NHL teams in Edmonton, Toronto and Calgary.

It pretty much tells you that the Preds have been getting their money’s worth whether he likes it or not.

http://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoney/2010/05/the-most-and-least-efficient-nba-and-nhl-teams-for-the-2009-10-season/

Just because the Preds blew game 5 in round 1 didn’t mean they were going to win the series. It meant that we would be coming back to Nashville for game 6 up 3-2. Who would have been surprised if the Blackhawks came back and won the final two games to win the series. Without the cap the Preds and other teams wouldn’t stand a chance to compete let alone contend. Dirk how can you say that the Preds can expect to compete for the Central Division and look for a deep playoff run when they have never done it and the roster won’t look much different than this year and Arnott and Sully playing out their swan songs. Your are really a half glass full person and your not even looking into the glass.

the Preds are one of the best at $$ spent/per regular season win, but what if you factor in playoff victories or series victories in April-June?

The Forbes blog rates Montreal and Philly as low in efficiency, but they both made the final four. I would take that ‘inefficiency’ over another first round flop any day.

Campbell correlates the Post lockout Finals matchups with $$$$, and the correlation is may not have been noticed by Dirk: 7 of the 8 teams spent to 95% of the cap. Carolina (which was somewhat anomolous, given their up and down performance before and since) was the exception.
This year, the low salary cap teams were NYI, PHO, NASH, COL, STL, TB, ATL, DAL, FLA and COL.
The only post-lockout playoff series wins from this illustrious group have been COL and DAL (and I believe they spent $$ when they did make their runs).

I agree with roseyc and think that beating Chicago twice, with another ‘near-victory’,
doesn’t mean that you are close to skating with Chicago. The Preds were equally “close” to skating with the Wings in 2008, and how much did that mean for the two years since?

There is a difference between saying spending to the cap guarantees you a chance to a contender (It doesn’t, we see that year after year) and saying that being ‘cheap’ hurts your chances of making a run (It does, and we see that year after year).

Well you can say that Chi will loose 3rd line players due to the cap and the Wings are getting older. Detroit didn’t loose the central to Chi because they were getting older it was because of injuries and trying to find their goalie which they did and when their injuries healed they came back from the dead and came back with abandon. I’m all for you being hopeful but let’s be realistic. If the Preds don’t up the ante then we’ll alway teter on making the playoffs or not depending on injuries and whether or not the younger players getting aculumated to the next level. Case in point look how long it took Hartnell to reach the level he’s playing at. He was a no.1 pick . Now look at Toews and Kane without the support of the talent brought in they would still be looking for the Cup instead of hoisting it like they are now. Competitive is like the Preds depending on fading veterans like Sully and Arnott whom both have injury past. The next level would be if they were third line players instead of number one line.