NHL Free Agents: The System Works

It's July, which means the hockey business must be going to hell.

Over at Fox Sports, Mike Chen uses the word "stupid" seven times in assessing this year's free agent spending.

For Ken Armer at Bleacher Report, it's all "money grubbing insanity." Mike Brophy at the Hockey News declares the game "in critical condition."

This is one of those endlessly recycled stories, of course. The same old shock and outrage, year after year.

It seems a lot of folks thought the salary cap would reduce NHL wages to the level of parking lot attendants and Wal-Mart greeters.

After three seasons, the new salary system is "an abject failure in regard to the goal of 'cost certainty'" according to Jim Kelley at SI.com.

He's wrong. NHL player costs are certain, down to the penny. Just ask the army of accountants who calculate league revenue every year. The players' share is set at just over 56 percent for next season. You don't get much more certain than that.

Bottom line: If the money wasn't rolling in, the players wouldn't be getting it.

Maybe the Florida Panthers and Phoenix Coyotes don't have enough of that money. That's their own fault for not selling enough tickets.

Maybe guys like Michael Ryder and Jeff Finger will be paid too much of that money. But if they were getting a dollar less, some other skater would get a dollar more.

Some of the contracts signed this summer may well be stupid. We'll find out when the puck drops. The games will separate the smart spenders from the stupid spenders. That's how it's supposed to work.

The rhetoric of "failure" and "critical condition" grew tired a long time ago. The so-called insanity is nothing more than the players getting their fair share of the pie. Just like Gary Bettman and the owners demanded when they shut down the league back in 2005.

Photo: Cristobal Huet's spotty record earned him a $22.5 million contract in Chicago. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)