Monthly archives for September, 2014

Top NHL players really do improve in contract year, statistics show

By Phil Curry and Mark Drummond With a new NHL season around the corner, we’re bound to hear commentators talking about which players have contracts coming up next season and whether they’ll “step up their play” in order to get that big payday. But does this actually happen? Martin LaPointe is the poster boy for […]

Cashing in Big: A Look at Contract Year Effects

This week’s column in The Star was based on research done by Mark Drummond. Mark just graduated from the University of Waterloo as an economics major, and one of his graduation requirements was the writing of an undergraduate thesis. I was fortunate enough to act as supervisor to this project. Mark chose to examine the […]

Why Devante Smith-Pelly Remains Unsigned

Devante Smith-Pelly turned 22 in June and is coming off a season in which he led his AHL team with 27 goals, got a late season call up to the Anaheim Ducks, and capped it off by leading the team with 5 goals in 12 playoff games.   So why is Smith-Pelly still sitting at […]