Fans had sacrificed watching their beloved sport for a full season for "the betterment of the game." Now that a cap was put in place, gone would be the days where rich teams like New York and Toronto could just throw endless amounts of money and sign free agents in order to try and win a Championship. Small market teams such as Edmonton and Calgary would now be able to compete on a more level playing field.

Since the League’s return to play in the 05/06 season, the NHL has been making nothing but money. Sure there are a few teams that struggle simply due to the fact that no one in cities like Nashville care about a bunch of guys skating around chasing a little black piece of rubber. So what is the first thing the braintrust of the League do? You guessed it, they raise the salary cap. Unbelievable, the fans of the game have been duped again. Just when we thought fiscal responsibility was the order of the day, the idiotic free agent signings have begun.

Fans of the Los Angeles Kings will be thrilled to know that 11 million dollars of their hard earned money has just been spent on the signing of free agent defenceman (insert drum roll here) … Tom Preissing. Tom what? Yes, the same Tom Preissing that scored a whopping 38 points in 80 games with the Ottawa Senators was signed by the LA Kings for four years at a staggering 2.75 million per season.

After years of mediocrity, the Buffalo Sabres finally iced a competitive team in the 06/07 season, falling a few games short of making the Stanley Cup finals. Well Sabre fans, as of yesterday you can all but forgret about seeing your heroes raising the Cup anytime in the near future. Centre Chris Drury was lured to the NY Rangers for $35.25 million (just over 7 million a season) while sniper Daniel Briere signed with the Philadelphia Flyers for 8 years and $52 million.

Sounds like we are right back to the good old pre-lockout days. The precedent has been set. Anyone that scores 35 goals or more is now worth 6 million plus a season. Forget about anyone building a dynasty. If you have two or three great players you will only be able to keep one the following season. Once the salary cap is raised to a certain level, the small market teams will no longer be able to compete and the League will be in worse shape than it was pre lockout.

It’s time for the league to take it’s head out of it’s blue jeans and stick to it’s guns and force all teams to work within a budget that is fair to everyone. Allow franchises to develop great players without the fear that the rich teams are going to grab him from their roster the following season. Make no mistake fans, this game is a business to the players and they are going to play for the team that offers them the most cake.

If winning Stanley Cups is what means the most to the players, then explain why Ryan Smyth just signed with a Colorado franchise that is rapidly on the decline. Smyth could have signed anywhere. He chose Colorado and you can be sure it has nothing to do with the fresh mountain air.