Winning Stanley Cup makes fighting worthwhile: Study
RESEARCH: Big payoffs await for tough-guy players who win
WINDSOR, Ont. — It pays to fight in hockey and it especially pays to hoist the Stanley Cup if you’re a grinder.
In a study that seems more inspired by a Don Cherry rant than a master’s thesis, former Windsor Spitfire Derek Lanoue calculated the payoff for being an enforcer and, in a first, the payoff for winning the Stanley Cup.
Players who signed a contract in the year after winning the Stanley Cup got an average salary boost of 19 per cent, he found in a study that helped earn his master’s degree in economics at the University of Windsor recently.
It’s the third- or fourth-liners who have the most to gain, said the former right-winger who had that role with the 2010 Memorial Cup-winning Spitfires.
“Winning the Stanley Cup kind of separates yourself from the pack of the grunt players,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to do as much for the all-stars and guys that have already separated themselves.”
The prime example in his study of 217 players who signed contracts from 2013-15 was another former Windsor Spitfire: Bryan Bickell of the Chicago Blackhawks was earning $541,667 a year before the team won the Stanley Cup in 2013.
Afterward, his paycheque jumped to $4 million a year in a four-year deal. A player with similar stats but no championship received a $1-million contract.
Although the sample was limited — only seven players won the cup and renegotiated a new contract — Lanoue feels the findings are intriguing. They include: Lengthen your earnings. Retired NHL players with a Stanley Cup ring played 60 per cent more games than those who were not on a winning team.
Let your fists fly. Those who fought about once every 12 games got paid 14 per cent more in new contracts.
“We found justification for fighting in the National Hockey League,” Lanoue said.