Chuck Finder: Palffy Surprised By Mario's Interest

Lemieux's recruiting effort pays off as Penguins sign big-scoring forward to three-year, $13.5 million deal
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Matt Freed, Post-GazetteThe Penguins' Dick Tarnstrom falls over Ziggy Palffy Feb. 25, 2003, at Mellon Arena.Click photo for larger image.

Ziggy Palffy, thanks to a trans-Atlantic recruiting pitch from Mario Lemieux, became an official member of a Penguins club structuring its marquee free-agent contracts with a bulge in the middle.

Palffy signed a $13.5 million deal yesterday paying him $3.5 million this season, $5.5 million next year and $4.5 million in 2007-08. It's a financial rainbow effect also present in the team's agreement last week with offensive defenseman Sergei Gonchar, whose five-year, $25 million contract starts at $3.5 million and pays him $17 million over the final three years.

Under the NHL's new Collective Bargaining Agreement, a contract's average salary will count toward a team's salary cap, with Palffy carrying a $4.5 million value and Gonchar $5 million. Yet, this year, they will earn a combined $2.5 million below the Penguins' cap total, expected to fall between $31 million-$33 million. Could the Penguins be saving that money to front-load someone else's deal, with $4 million-$6 million left to spend, or merely to use as an economic safety net?

General manager Craig Patrick said yesterday that it's the latter: They're just being cautious. Especially considering the heretofore penurious Penguins were watching their finances for a new arena and their bottom line, after nearly 490 days without any gate receipts.

"We talked about it internally, and we don't know where our revenues are going to be" this season, he said. "We feel this gives us a chance to build our revenues back up this year. So we can keep going forward."

As for the addition of Palffy, 33, Patrick considered it a strong move made with an eye on the league's new rules and speedy, scoring-line combinations.

"Ziggy's like everybody says, a great goal scorer. An exciting player," Patrick said. "Some people who watch him regularly say he's probably the best four-on-four player in the world."

In any situation -- penalties, overtimes, shootouts -- Palffy infuses a goal-scoring electricity to a team that lacked such a spark in 2003-04. He ranks sixth among active NHL players the past decade with 308 goals, behind Jaromir Jagr, Peter Bondra, Keith Tkachuk, Teemu Selanne and Brendan Shanahan.

Mark Recchi, who signed with the Penguins last summer, didn't dial up Slovakia to woo Palffy, though he serves at Patrick's discretion for such things. Rather, it was an international call from Lemieux that helped seal this deal.

"I was surprised," Palffy said from Slovakia about the call late last week. "I was really happy that he was interested in me. He was fair, and he was straight. He just called me player to player. He's an owner, [but] he's not just about that. He wants to get me to this organization.

"They're putting a good team together. With the new rules, it's going to be fun. It's a more open ice. It's going to be different hockey for sure for the people. Very different hockey."

Patrick said he solicited the help of Lemieux and Recchi before the free-agency gates opened last week.

"They've been very, very helpful," he said. "Actually, Mario's had some great ideas how to get guys -- as has Mark. It's been fun going through this process. Very educational."

NOTES -- The Penguins open training camp Sept. 13 at Mellon Arena and play two of their nine preseason games there: Sept. 27 vs. Columbus and Oct. 2 vs. Washington. ... They will spend Sept. 20-25 training at affiliate Wilkes-Barre's Wachovia Arena and play two preseason games Sept. 21 vs. Boston and Sept. 24 vs. Ottawa. ... The rest of their preseason schedule: Sept. 19 at Columbus; Sept. 23 vs. Ottawa at Binghamton, N.Y.; Sept. 25 vs. Washington at Hershey, Pa.; Sept. 29 at Ottawa; Sept. 30 at Washington. ... Patrick said the Penguins had good timing and good luck, what with the Kings trading for Jeremy Roenick late last week. Said Palffy: "I didn't ask for $6 million; I was asking for a fair price. The Kings were interested, then they got Roenick and they backed out. I put everything behind me right now. I'm ready to play hockey." ... No word on any decision by veteran goalie Sean Burke.

(Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.)