Kane and Toews Deals Signal Change In Star-Player Valuation

Adjusting your mindset to player valuations in sports is extremely difficult, especially as these entertainment industries continue to make money hand over glove. Players are getting paid more than ever and the money is busting out of the finely stitched khaki pockets of billionaire team owners. The NHL throws everybody a curveball—or knuckle puck I guess?—every decade by locking the players out and completely changing the financial landscape of the league. The players concede money, the owners concede elsewhere.

So it was shocking but not unwarranted when Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, two-time Stanley Cup Champions, both of whom have already been presented with Conn Smythe trophies in their young career, and hover near the top in all major awards, signed for identical eight-year $84 million contracts. Toews and Kane are stars and it's time the NHL started paying stars like stars. These two aren't the best players in the league but they're top-tier hockey players—Toews arguably more so than Kane—and now their paychecks match their status.

"Jonathan and Patrick have become cornerstones of this franchise during their time in Chicago," general manager Stan Bowman said, in a statement posted on the team's official website. "We are excited to ensure they will continue to lead our organization for years to come."

For Chicago, this was about locking up their core. Paying your stars top-dollar shouldn't be a concern for an NHL general manager. Rather, the concern should be how to avoid overpaying middling players. There should be some concern over the Blackhawks salary cap structure in the future, but that's because players like Bryan Bickell and Corey Crawford are overpaid and not worth more than what can be found young and cheap.

The league's problem is not paying stars what they're worth. It's paying the league average players more than they are worth.

Dave Bolland, a fine player just signed a deal that will pay him $5.5 million annually. Dan Girardi, an aging defenseman for the New York Rangers, just signed a deal that will pay him the same, even after he skated like his feet were in quicksand throughout the playoffs. Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen just signed mega-deals and the list goes on and on.

Nobody should ever fault players for signing the contracts that they do. Athletes are not overpaid, the money is there and it exists. But don't blame the next lockout on the rising deals for stars in the league. Lockouts are fought over how they should split a piece of pie that's tangible and already exists. This isn't deciding how big of a pie the league should order. What teams need to figure out now is how to subdivide that already divided piece of pie that the players are getting.

When the contracts kick-in, starting with the 2015 season, that salary cap is reportedly going to be $75 million. While there's no way of planning what will happen a year from now—Canada could cease to exist, we could be living under the oppressive regime of a one-world government run by Donald Trump, a cryptocurrency called "Hatercoin" could become the standard-it's safe to say the number will be somewhere around there. That means, combined, Kane and Toews will each take up approximately 14 percent of the team's salary cap space.

We need to change the way we think about how much stars are getting paid proportionate to the league revenue and the salary cap.

When Alexander Ovechkin signed his massive deal that began in 2008, at 9.5 million annually, he was taking up approximately 16.5 percent of his team's salary cap space.

Take a second-tier superstar if you want to separate Ovechkin from the rest. Rick Nash, when he signed for an average annual value of 7.8 million, counted against 13 percent of his team's cap space. That's a pretty minor difference.

Is Jonathan Toews worth 14 percent of his team's cap space? Absolutely. Toews is the league prototypical three-zone player. His possession numbers are consistently near the top of the league, he posts upper-echelon offensive numbers, he's an elite face off center, and he's got two Stanley Cup rings.

The argument for Kane is a little bit harder, as he's put up solid point totals on an annual basis, but his zone starts are some of the most sheltered in the league. He could be expected to contribute more, but his contributions to the Blackhawks are tremendously important.

This was more about locking the two of them up together and paying them the same was an easy way to get that done. It keeps everyone happy and keeps the Blackhawks contenders.

"When we started our journey we made a commitment to our fans to be relevant and to see the Chicago Blackhawks become the best professional hockey organization. There are not two finer symbols of that than Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane," team chairman Rocky Wirtz said. "The commitment we have made to these incredible young men is equal to the commitment they have made to our team, our fans, our entire organization and the city of Chicago. We are excited for our future and proud that they will continue to be a part of that commitment and success for years to come."

Going over that $10 million plateau was almost taboo for teams, but with a more constructive collective bargaining agreement—players could sign staggered contracts, before the eight-year term limit, paying them as much as $12 million one year, and as little as $1 million another; those days are gone—forcing general managers to pony up big dollars to keep their stars, plenty of other plays will be crossing that line with Kane and Toews shortly.

Steven Stamkos could very reasonably command $11 million as a free agent in two years and if P.K. Subban signs another bridge deal, he could be looking at an eight-figure annual cap hit the next time he hits free agency.

The valuation system, by which we judge players on is changing. The next test will be which general managers can keep up and which get left in the dust, signing mediocre talent to inflated contracts. The cap is going up to give teams a chance to retain stars and use that space to attract big name free agents. Not to pay third liners like Hall of Famers.