Paul Kariya has willingly given up a $10 million/ year paycheque to move to another team, the Colorado Nordiques/Avalanche, for a salary of less than $2 million per year.

Well, there is more to it than that, but Kariya has proven that there are still players who are playing primarily for their love of the game. I've always said that the majority of NHL players would still play in the NHL even if their salaries were not so outrageous. Most kids growing up dream of playing in the NHL not because of the money, but because it is the NHL.

When I was a kid playing organized hockey, that was our dream, to make it through peewees, then to bantam, midgets, juniors and the high school team, and then on to the big leagues. We never dreamed about playing to get rich.


Of course after next year the NHLPA contract expires and we will likely hear a lot of talk about how hockey players don't get paid as much as baseball players, and we'll see a lot of our favourite players wearing their NHLPA paraphernalia.

We can hope however, that there is a growing trend in the NHL towards playing for the sake of winning instead of for dollars.



And while we are on the topic of players who like big salaries, and since the current Kariya story involves the former Quebec Nordiques, I want Eric Lindros to know that Canadian hockey fans haven't forgotten how he stabbed the fans of the Nordiques in the back, and possibly helped cause Quebec City to lose a powerful hockey team.

Lindros can still go fuck himself.