Jim Rutherford: Next Season's Payroll To Be Between $43 to $45 Million

Now we see why they set an early deadline of May 14 if you wanted to get the ticket freebies or All-Star tickets – so PK and JR could announce the $43-$45 million salary budget.

JR, if you want to make money, you have to get this team into the playoffs. Keep in mind that if you lose paying customers, you lose $10 parking, you lose $10 hotdog combos, $8.50 beers (not from me), $7 Six Dollar Burgers, stops at the Eye between periods, etc.

I thought it was a mistake to sign Sergei for 3 years, based on his history; same for signing Cole (would rather have a younger Justin Williams anyway). and if Babchuk is the answer, we are asking the wrong question.

I’m a fan, but I’d rather save a couple of bucks and watch John and Tripp (although I’d still like a Tripp Tracy mute button at times).

of the United States of America, no matter what you say,think or do,,,there is and will always be someone or some group that will hate your guys…sigh…and this just the begining too !!! I woke up today thankful I did NOT have JR’s job…he’s damed if he does and damed if he don’t…Gee I love being a fan & A Caniac !!

My approach is probably the exact opposite of jbwhite99. We added one more STH seat because I assumed this year was going to be a challenging one for the organization. My view is that whether with friends, local businesses, or sports teams, when they need me most is when I have to be there for them. It isn’t that I have to agree 100% when I friend’s decisions to still realize they are in tough times and need somebody getting their back.

It helps. However there are a number of examples where teams spend money and it doesn’t = rings (cups in hockey). Look at the Tampa Bay Rays in baseball. Frugal yes. Competitive yes. ditto for the Twins. We don’t have to spend more….We just have to work smarter. I’ll admit this is somewhat sobering. However I’m a glass is half full kind-of-person so In with the youngsters and go ’Canes!

This will be much more common around the NHL this year — many teams simply are not profitable spending anywhere near the cap.

There’s still a huge divide between haves and have nots in this league, and if they’re going to be serious about making some of the newer markets work long term, teams need to be profitable. It’s likely time they lower the floor substantially more and increase revenue sharing.

If you a fan and you are not buying even a 12 game package then I believe you are contributing to the problem and shouldn’t have a right to complain about the situation. Has the cap been announced for this year? 55 million? I really don’t see the big deal, however, you have to make sound choices. Something I don’t envy for JR this year. However, spending a lot of money doesn’t guarentee championships. Look at us last year, — the Yankees and Redskins are also examples that come to mind. It’s more about chemistry and having a little bit of luck of everything coming together at the right time. I read a quote once that said “teams don’t win championships because they have great players, team’s win championships because players play great”

that is all.

I understand what is going on, but I am not thrilled. I just thought we were a few pieces away from seriously competing and know I see we will not be adding any of those pieces. As a fan (that purchases season tickets), its a tough pill to swallow. I want to see this team competitive and the reduced payroll doesn’t make it impossible, but does make it extremely more difficult.

Its also very tough when 2 players take up a third of your entire payroll. As everybody knows, I’m a big Staal supporter; but his contract (and Cam’s) are way out of wack for this teams budget. I can’t blame them for getting what they could, but JR’s negotiating skills definitely come into question.

You can’t starve a pig to profitability.

I think the part where he was talking about the number of exhibition games was indicative of how unsure JR is of the roster come this fall. He prefers to play 4 games, but only if his starters play in all 4. They chose to play 6 this year, indicating that he isn’t sure who is/will be a regular, those games are used to find out who will be.

JR is talking about our best players being our best players and he lists off Staal, Ward, Ruutu, Gleason, Sutter, and Pitkanen.

Does that sound like a core to you?

JR is listed as one of the guests today on NHL Live. He’s the last guest listed, so probably in the last half-hour, but that’s just a guess.

NHL Network or online at NHL.com from 12-2.

We are at a confluence of events:

• the worst economy in years
• PK has no partner backing up the minority cost anymore
• we stunk it up last season

All of these things hit the bottom line in a huge way.

We are in a unique position where our development in the AHL is yielding multiple young players who are ready, which we can bring in to be a budget team this year and spend at the floor without completely compromising performance.

I for one truly believe that they plan for this to be a 1-time kind of thing, it makes sense given all the inputs. If we can play well enough to be profitable (and between JR’s knack for getting budget players and our AHL pipeline, I think that’s doable), PK should (fingers crossed) get the investment help he’s hoping for. I really don’t think they’re planning for a death spiral of years of underperformance, only a reset after a destructive season on the books.

That isn’t to say it won’t happen, last year was certainly not in the plan either; if things go wrong, it could take longer to dig out of the hole (and JR’s comments make it clear they’re aware it’s still a possibility), but you’ve gotta work with what you have.

If we play our cards right, we can still be a competitive team while temporarily spending at the floor.

Like everyone else, of course I’m apprehensive, but I’m certain this is better than the alternatives, like aggressively looking into moving the team somewhere with a bigger revenue base.

What I want more than anything is to watch and enjoy hockey, and as long as the team is doing what it needs to to try to be competitive and improve the young players, I’m still bullish on the future.

From a Canes Now post this afternoon, comes an encouraging update from PK on the ownership issue:

“We have a lot of interest from a lot of people around the Raleigh area”

Also, this tidbit was added to the “so what do we know?” pile:

Karmanos, who has owned the franchise since 1994 and moved it to Raleigh in 1997, again insisted he was not interested in selling 100 percent of the team.

“I never said I was selling the whole team,” he said. "I said what I’m trying to do is take care of my partner’s estate. He owned 49 percent of the team.