Where For Art Thou Lombo?

Let's see...

Tanguay signed, Kobasew signed, Huselius signed. Check, check, check. Simon and Donovan let go, Zyuzin acquired. Yelle inked to a couple more years. Everything seems to be in order...

...except the Lombardi situation. WTF is going on there?

It's hard to guess, primarily because there have been precious few details released about the subject. Pretty much all I know is that Lombo didn't accept his qualifying offer. What I *think* that means he is technically a restricted FA - one who is most porbably trying to garner more money from the Flames.

Even with that in mind, it's hard to fathom how this situation has stretched on for so long. Lombo simply doesn't have the statistical leverage to argue for a "financially prohibitive" contract (prohibitive from a club/cap perspective) - he's played 134 NHL games and scored at a rate of 0.41 PPG during that time. Last season, Lombardi managed only 6 goals and 20 assists in 55 games. That's a 39 point season, extrapolated over 82 games. Which is nothing to write home about and hardly worthy of any sort of significant raise.

Perhaps it's the length that is causing the impasse. Because Lombo probably can't argue for anything above $1 million/season, Sutter may be fishing for a longer term contract - say three or four years. Four years at $1 million per would no doubt become a steal should Lombardi actually blossom into a top 6 forward. Course, Lombo's agent knows this and is arguing for the raise + a shorter term contract. Two years max?

I guess the final sticking point could be bonuses/incentives. The agent in question probably realizes that:

1.) His client doesn't have impressive stats and therefore can't demand a big base salary.
2.) The Flames consider him an offensive prospect and hope to develop him into a scoring center.

Therefore, the big money for Matthew may reside in performance incentives. Can't argue for $2 million in base pay? Go for the "$500,000 for 20 goals" and "$750,000 for 60 points" clauses. On the other side of the table, Sutter undoubtedly knows that big performance incentives will drain most of the value on the dollar he'd be gleaning from a player like Lombo: getting "more" for "less" from young, homegrown talent is basically the new way to win in a salary-capped league. Hence the delay. Sutter doesn't want to lock Lombardi in for a few years at a relatively meagre salary figure only to have to pay out "fair value" should he actually perform.

I'm pulling this outta my ass, for anyone who hasn't come to that conclusion already. Hell, maybe all parties concerned went on vacation and agreed to negotiate in August and there's nothing more to it than that. However, going into the off-season I would have assumed Lombardi's to be one of the easier contracts to get negotiated and signed...which leads to the paranoid ramblings above.

Whatever the cause of the delay, I hope he's re-signed soon: $1 million/year, 4 years, (incentives minimal).