The folks over at Canadian Business Online have been doing some number crunching, and they've published a list of players ranked by their cost-effectiveness:
Ah, the salary cap. The great equalizer in the NHL. No more can teams buy their way to the top. Not that some teams were able to do that anyway (Hello, Toronto Maple Leafs and your 40 years of futility). But today's NHL team is just as much a function of salaries as it is players. Each team had roughly $44 million (all figures in $US) to spend in 2006. Some, such as the Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks, spent it unwisely. Others, especially the Penguins, Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres, were penny-pinching marvels.Consider that the Penguins spent about $37 million to earn 105 points. That's $351,603 per point, making it the most cost-effective team in the NHL. (It should be pointed out that the salary figures contained on our charts reflect the current value of all player contracts on a team, not the actual amount paid under the cap, nor do they include performance bonuses.) At the other end of the spectrum, the Flyers spent $723,815 for each of its 56 points. The best-spending Canadian team was the Ottawa Senators at $430,201 a point, followed by the Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames, Leafs and Edmonton Oilers.
The charts are broken down by forwards, defense, goalies and overall.
Here's a notion: It's hard to say that your decisions are "cost-effective" if your team doesn't manage to make the playoffs. Then again, if your aim is to win just often enough to keep your rabid fan base interested in the team, perhaps we need to think about things a little differently.
For an explanation of the study's methodology, click here. One thing that made me smile: The study relied heavily on the stats publsihed by nhlnumbers.com, an open source that I've come to rely on over the past season.
