PHOTO: Roman Horak with the Calgary Flames / Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, I watched 23-year old Roman Horak play. In a KHL match-up, his Vityaz defeated Medvescak in Zagreb with a score of 6-3. The Czech-born centerman contributed with 2 goals, stellar play in all three zones and was a notable penalty killer on the night. In a crucial game for both sides when looking at this year’s playoff race, he was among the leading Fs in ice time and played in all key situations.



In this, his first KHL season, Horak currently has 21 points in 27 games (15 of those are goals, in case you were wondering) to lead his team in both categories. His AHL career lasted 139 games where he produced at a 0.64 points-per-game pace, racking up 89 points and 41 goals. His last year in the league was his best, 48 points in 52 games surely meant he was trending up. But why all this talk about Horak, you ask? Because he can’t play in the NHL. Read on.



I talked to Roman after the game and he offered his thoughts on a number of things (presented below) including one about him not having an NHL contract. PS If you’re not interested in these, feel free to skip the interview part of this piece.

“We’ve been playing pretty well and we’ve just got to keep going. We have a young team with some vets. Obviously, having Max Afinogenov and Denis Grebeshkov helps the young guys. The KHL is the best league in Europe so it’s hard to play especially with the transition. I was playing in North America so the transition was a little bit hard but I’ve been lucky to have some guys around that helped me and… so far so good.”

On not having an NHL contract: “Obviously, the NHL was my dream and of course it’s tough to leave, but I’m still young and maybe someday I’ll get back there. Now I’m happy here, I’m happy with Vityaz and I’m just trying to do my best over here. But like I said, I’m still young so hopefully I might get back there one day.”





PHOTO: Maxim Afinogenov with the Sabres / Wikimedia Commons

On Maxim Afinogenov: “You know, just watching him in practice, it’s a pleasure. You can learn a lot, he’s unbelievable one-on-one and that’s really good for this league since we have a little more space here. He showed that tonight, too. He’s still probably the fastest guy I’ve ever seen. It’s a pleasure to have him on the team and I watch him every day, trying to pick up new things.”

Thoughts on Zagreb’s hockey crowd: “Really good actually. You know, Croatia might not be the biggest hockey country but the fans are really really good here and it was a pleasure to play.”

When talking about Horak, I’m actually talking about talent. That a talented 23-year old with very good offensive instincts, who plays both the powerplay and penalty kill situations with equal aplomb and is good defensively can’t find a spot on an NHL roster perfectly illustrates the dilution of talent that’s become commonplace in the world’s best hockey league. I also feel like there is a big misconception about why that’s the case.

Most hockey people I talked to about the subject blame it on the number of teams currently playing for the Stanley Cup (yes, this includes Buffalo, too). The 1967 expansion brought in six new teams (California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues) to the fold and indeed watered down the talent levels before seen on the Original Six. But back then, if you had claimed that a Slovenian could one day be considered as a top 5 centerman in the NHL, you’d have probably ended up in an insane asylum. Today, if you look at it globally, there’s plenty of skill to go around. So if finding skill isn’t the problem, what is?

Well, it’s pretty simple really. It’s the salary cap. Now, let’s make one thing clear. I’m not against the salary cap. Although not without its faults, it’s by far the best financial agreement in sports I know of. Regardless if we’re talking about luxury tax in baseball, or financial fair play in football (soccer)– both are models that haven’t exactly worked. To a point, the NHL salary cap has indeed enabled owners to control spending and let’s face it, most players never had it better, just ask Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

However, controlling the spending via the salary cap means that there is limited money for skill throughout the lineup which means you can only afford to really pay high-end skill. Listen, we all know that Alexander Semin’s skill is worth more than Colton Orr’s pugilistic skills, that’s why his agent can negotiate more, but that’s also why if Semin doesn’t produce a certain number of points there is no GM crazy enough to take on his contract, no GM willing to sign him as an unrestricted free agent and what you get is Maxim Afinogenov, who is still dazzling, but currently dazzles away from the NHL.

That skill just can’t play in the NHL because teams don’t have enough cap space to pay it to play on the third and fourth lines. I mean, look at the Calgary teams from the late 80s or the Red Wings from early 2000s. There’s skilled depth there. Then again, how much would teams like these cost in today’s NHL?

Some people would claim that skilled guys who can’t put up gaudy numbers often price themselves out of the market. That might be the case, but it’s not greed by any means. By the very nature of the game (to score goals to win, to delight the crowd and get it to hockey games) their skill is worth more than what your average energy player earns. This creates a stalemate situation that simply can’t be resolved under the current salary cap format. You can tell the skilled guys to ask for less to stay, but it will happen less and less with new options such as the KHL.

As far as talent is concerned, this day and age NHL teams could easily ice teams with 4 skilled lines but cost control prevents them from doing that. This all means that there was never more room for grinders, pluggers, energy guys than there is now. In the end, the NHL artificially makes room for less talented players because they cost less. I’ll even go one step further and claim that certain roles in hockey still exist simply because of that fact. That’s why skilled tweeners (between the AHL and NHL) like Horak can’t cut it. Cost control, I’m afraid, comes at a price. (by Mislav Jantoljak)