Stamkos nets 50th goal, scores winner in shootout

Hockey Betting Lines

04/10/2010 - Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steven Stamkos scored twice to become the third- youngest player in NHL history to notch 50 goals in a season, and appropriately buried the shootout winner in Tampa Bay's 4-3 win over Florida.

At just 20 years and two months old, the top overall pick in 2008 is behind only Wayne Gretzky (19 years, 2 months; 1979-80) and Jimmy Carson (19 years, 8 months; 1987-88).

Stamkos tied Washington's Alex Ovechkin in the race for the Maurice Richard Trophy, awarded to the NHL's leading goal-scorer. Both sit just one goal ahead of Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, and all three are in action on the final day of the regular season Sunday.

The Lightning will complete a home-and-home set with Florida on the road, the Capitals host Boston and the Penguins travel to take on the Islanders.

Stamkos is bidding to become the youngest player to lead the NHL in goals since Rick Nash shared honors with Jarome Iginla and Ilya Kovalchuk in 2004 (41 goals).

After delighting the crowd with his two tallies in regulation, Stamkos avoided a pokecheck and flipped in a backhander to start the shootout.

Antero Niittymaki stuffed Stephen Weiss and Nathan Horton shot wide, while both of the next two Lightning shooters were also foiled.

That left Michael Frolik with a chance to extend the game, but his backhand attempt was deflected up and over the crossbar by Niittymaki to give the Bolts a night to remember in their final home game of the season.

Niittymaki came away with 29 saves and Martin St. Louis recorded his 29th goal on the season for the Lightning, who have posted back-to-back shootout wins.

Scott Clemmensen made 34 saves and Horton registered a goal and two assists for the Panthers, who have dropped three of four.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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