Is Clark Worth The Money?

by David Driscoll-Carignan on Aug 27, 2007 6:41 PM MDT in News Comment 5 comments

Already tonight, I've raved a bit about the Brett Clark signing - a signing that hasn't exactly been received with open arms with the Avalanche community. Most people think $3.5 million for an average defenseman is too much. Me? I wonder what sport they've been following.

This is the new NHL, where owners are so strapped for cash...oh, wait. Sorry, I was reading a press release from 2005. This is actually the new NHL, where owners are throwing money at players like Charlie Sheen does with hookers.

Since the lockout, Brett Clark has 78 points or an average of 38 points. For kicks, I made a little list of players with similar point totals...say, from 67 points to 81 points. Below 67 points and you run into a lot of crappy defenseman. And 81 points seems to be the upper threshold of "average" contracts. The 3 guys above that threshold are Wade Redden, Zdeno Chara and Rob Blake - all making $6 million (or more).

I took out the two guys (Andrej Meszaros and Marc-Andre Bergeron) who haven't hit free agency. Here's the list...with their salary and 2-year point totals.

Tom Preissing $2,750,000 81
Marek Zidlicky $3,500,000 79
Brett Clark $3,500,000 78
Joseph Corvo $2,750,000 77
Michal Rozsival $2,100,000 74
Sami Salo $3,750,000 70
Teppo Numminen $2,600,000 70
Alexei Zhitnik $3,500,000 69
Tom Poti $3,500,000 67
Mathias Ohlund $3,500,000 64

Average salary? $3,145,000.

A lot of these guys are one-way offensive specialists. Whatever you might think of Clark's defensive abilities, he's more responsible than most (all?) of the guys on this list. $3,500,000 is a lot of money for you or me to fathom. But, for a NHL defenseman averaging 35-40 points a season it's, basically, just a tad above average.

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Comments

the HF boards...

are making me laugh out loud for real over here. "omg i would MUCH rather have liles than clark!!1one" "clark's defense just SUCKS. period." were people watching the same clark I was? for that matter, the same liles?

it's chilling to think that avs fans are that ignorant of the game. clark got hung out to dry half the season by skrastins and his incessant wandering in his own zone, and STILL finished +5. it was totally obvious he was our top defenseman all last year. While I would guess he'll play at the 3rd D spot this year and about 18-20 min a game, he'll be a bargain at 3.5 million when his contract kicks in.

i mean, wow. i was overjoyed when i heard this, now im just totally confused at other avs fans.

by thedoctor on Aug 27, 2007 10:40 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: the HF boards

Please remember that there is also an extremely vocal minority of Avalanche fans who love Jose Theodore and want him to be number one simply because he is more attractive than Peter Budaj. If you've ever spent any time at the Avalanche.com board, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Most of those people are 14 years old.

Every team has fans who are either ignorant or just hung up on some meme they heard from some other ignorant fan.

by Joe @ MHH on Aug 28, 2007 4:33 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

I must be the only one

I must be the only blogger/non-message board person who just wasn't all that impressed with Clark last season. Yes he was woefully mismatched with Skrastins, but part of that was his fault too. He seemed to wander with Skratch and they just didn't gel on the ice for whatever reason.

Clark also has the propensity of bad turnovers. I saw more than one time last season where I was like "Damnit why the hell would you try and make that pass" and it was Clark making it.

I admit that when he was paired with Sauer he seemed to play a lot better, in both ends. Sometimes having that stay at home guy, allows him to wander a little more and not get burned. I'm coming around on him, but I am not as glowing about him as others around here seem to be.

I thought Liles was far and away better until his ankle injury, then he took a step back (I think that was because he rushed himself back and was playing hurt too)

by Jibblescribbits on Aug 28, 2007 8:15 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

you are the only one ;)

Maybe he did make some bad passes (I don't remember that many), but he was the most consistant D-man the Avs had by several miles. Consistant d-men win games, even more so with a loaded offense.

Never trust the lunch lady.

by Hardshell_Taco_del_Lowayne on Aug 28, 2007 9:17 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: you are the only one

I think it would be difficult to find a single good defenseman anywhere in the league that didn't make a bad pass now and again---or even often---and is still a good defenseman.

Even Scott Niedermayer makes bad passes.

by Joe @ MHH on Aug 28, 2007 4:33 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs