Faceoff Factor: Players Salary vs Playoff Production

Players Salary vs Playoff Production

Jonathan Farzalo | Inside The Numbers

Apr 28, 03:43 PM | Hype this story!

I constantly hear people calling out Marian Hossa.

“He is a choker. He can not play in the playoffs. He is overpaid. He is going to command too much for his production. He is a Maid Marian.”

So I got to thinking. How does Hossa compare to others in the playoffs. Specifically, others who are commanding a high salary this year. I chose a 6 million dollar a year cutoff, even though Hossa makes more. Just as a point of reference. Of course, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, etc. are off this list. Their salaries will be bumped up in the near future. However, I wanted to look at this year—alone.

Below is a chart of each player, their salary, and their production in the playoffs this year so far. I have eliminated defensemen from the chart, as to compare only offensive players (I know I know dmen score too). I have also used numbers for actual salary, not the salary cap number, which at times is lower.

Name	Salary – 07-08 in Millions	Team	Gms	Points	Points Per Game
Scott Gomez	10.00	NYR	7	8	1.14
Daniel Briere	10.00	PHI	9	12	1.33
Jaromir Jagr	8.36	NYR	7	10	1.43
Brad Richards	7.80	DAL	8	9	1.12
Ryan Smyth	7.50	COL	8	5	0.62
Patrik Elias	7.10	NJ	5	6	1.20
Chris Drury	7.10	NYR	7	4	0.57
Marian Hossa	7.00	PIT	6	6	1.00
Jerome Iginla	7.00	CGY	7	9	1.29
Joe Sakic	6.75	COL	8	6	0.75
Pavel Datsyuk	6.70	DET	8	7	0.88
Joe Thornton	6.67	SJ	9	8	0.89
Marian Gaborik	6.50	MIN	6	1	0.17
Sergei Federov	6.08	WAS	7	5	0.71
Note: sorted by salary

Judging by those numbers, and let’s be honest, numbers aren’t everything, Jagr leads the way on points per game with a “staggering” 1.43, while Hossa is struggling with a “meager” 1.00. I’m not going to sit here at my computer and key a paragraph that suggests that Hossa is worth 7 million dollars a year, or that any player is, that’s too much money. However, when compared to Gomez, Smyth, and even Drury, I can understand why people will pay him that amount. He is a solid player, both ways, will score goals, setup goals, play the powerplay, the penalty kill, backcheck and forecheck. He is a complete player.

Ironically, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin lead the league in points per game in the playoffs. They are tied with 1.67 points per game. Let’s keep things in perspective folks, and judge Hossa when the Penguins are finished for the year…perhaps at that time, I will ‘revisit’ this chart and update it. As of right now, a lot of people say Marian Hossa isn’t “earning” his 7-mil, but neither are most of the others by comparison.

Side Notes:
$106,060 – The amount Marian Hossa earned (in theory) per point scored in 07-08
$142,875 – The amount Scott Gomez earned (in theory) per point scored in 07-08
$138,888 – The amount Daniel Briere earned (in theory) per point scored in 07-08

While both of the following players will earn much more than their entry level salaries for 07-08, it’s interesting to see the comparison.
$9,283 – The amount Evgeni Malkin earned (in theory) per point scored in 07-08
$8,786 – The amount Alex Ovechkin earned (in theory) per point scored in 07-08