One of the things that's going to work out well for PK Subban is that he will be a UFA in 2022. The NHL's TV deal with NBC expires in 2021, so 2021-22 will be the first year of whatever new deal they sign for American TV rights. The last deal, signed in 2011, was a $2 billion dollar deal. If the league continues to grow at the rate it has been, it's entirely possible the league will be getting more than the $5 billion Rogers paid for Canadian rights.
That will be a huge increase to the Salary Cap, and if PK continues to play as a top-end defenceman, it's entirely possible he'll get another four or five years at $9 million or more a season.
Some other things: I hope to Christ we one day have to pay TJ Brodie like this. If he ends up being worth that much money at the end of his next deal, we'll be one of the best teams in the conference for sure.
PK Subban is a very good possession player. His Corsi Relative numbers for the last four years have been +4.9%; +2.5%; +5.5%; +5.1%.
Comparing that to the three cheaper defencemen who were touted as being "better defensively" than Subban:
Vlassic: +0.4, +1.3, +3.9, +7.1
Bouwmeester: -1.9, -2.8, -2.8, +1.2,
Hamhuis: +3.9, +3.4, +3.7, +0.3
Now, Corsi Relative obviously doesn't tell the whole story in terms of defence. But it's clear that Subban has been consistently better than all three of those guys in terms of possession numbers, except for Vlassic last year.
It's also very much worth noting that all three of Vlassic, Bouwmeester, and Hamhuis' numbers get significantly worse in the postseason, whereas Subban's only dropped slightly in 2013-14 and actually took a huge jump up in 2012-13.
Also, it's cool to note that TJ Brodie has better Corsi Relative numbers than all four of those players.
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