Quote:
Originally Posted by strombad
That's unlikely.
Originally Subban was reported to have wanted a contract in the range of 6/6, paying him 36 million over the course of 6 years.
Instead, he got just over 5 over two years. To make the Habs regret that contract, they would have to sign him to a contract that is worth well over 7.5 million per year for the next four years.
He might make 7.5, or 8 even. But the ability to control your assets and remain steady in uncertain cap years was an absolute win for Bergevin.
Bridge contracts are never bad. It's win/win for the team, as either you get a fantastic player at a bargain before having to pay up, or you avoid the pain of having signed a flash in the pan to a big ticket.
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His contract was heavily backloaded to counter the lockout though as well. He still made close to 5M in actual salary those 2 years.
If Subban's camp was looking for an evenly distributed 6 million a year for 6 years, the lockout year would have only seen him payed 3.5M for a grand total of 33.5M. Subban will get roughly the same signing a 4 year 7.1 million a year contract.
On the other hand, if the other rumours were true and he was asking for a 5 million a year for 5 years contract, he would have made roughly 23M with that contract, again assuming it was evenly distributed. All Subban would need to beat out that contract would be a 3 year contract worth 6M+ a year.
There's far more at play, obviously the actual contract structure would have played a huge role, but also the cap hit. Instead of dealing with Subban with a cap hit of 2.9M this year and whatever it may be next year they would have had an even 5M or 6M cap hit for 5 or 6 years. Bad for the previous 2 years but much better for the next couple years. And more importantly instead of Subban reaching UFA status as a 28 or 29 year old they have the opportunity to sign him to a contract until he's 33 now. But maybe most importantly would be how the contract actually affected Subban, would he be complacent with a 6 year contract and not end up having to prove something last and this year? Need a time machine to figure that out. There's merit in the bridge contract, a lot of merit, but sometimes it works out for the player.