"If you are going to have star players on your team making good money, you are going to also have players at a better price point that can contribute."
Bargains. They're what every NHL GM is after under the league's salary cap.
Players producing at the 'better price point' Burke speaks to are playing a big part in shaping the NHL standings this season, helping their teams gain ground while creating far less of a squeeze up against the cap than the game's superstars.
Take a player like Atlanta Thrashers' sniper Marian Hossa, who is lighting the lamp with regularity and leading the league with 20 goals (prior to last night's games). His price point is a hefty $6-million hit against the $44-million cap, and dollar for dollar, his production so far averages out to $300,000 per goal so far this season.
The bargains, however, have come in the form of Hossa's less-heralded teammates — role players like Jon Sim, Brad Larsen and Glen Metropolit who are chipping in goals for a fraction of what Hossa has.
The best buys to this point in the season? Ducks rookie Dustin Penner, who has nine goals while making $479,000 — just more than the league minimum — and the Buffalo Sabres Thomas Vanek, who has 17 goals to show for his $942,00 salary.
Here's a look at the rest of the NHL's top bargains, and just how much per goal they have cost their team so far (where 'salary' represents a player's hit against the $44-million cap):
