The thing with Engelland is that he appears to play a lot better when he gets more minutes. However, the top 4 will be healthy at the start of next season, and other than Gio, the top 4 are pretty durable. Most him his time will be in the bottom 2 where he performs quite poorly.
Another thing is that Engelland is very old and can face sharp regression at any time over the next 2 years. I get that he's a late bloomer, but he's the oldest skater on the team.
He also can't skate or shoot, and his hitting gets him out of position. I don't dispute that he has good character, but nearly every player on the team has good character. Character doesn't justify ridiculous contracts. Russell, Gio, Stajan, Wideman, Bouma, Backlund, Monahan, and Gaudreau all have good character and are not grossly overpaid like Engelland is.
Luckily, there's only 2 years left, and the cap isn't actually that high. It's just very high for what Engelland is and will be. He's a bit similar to what Sarich was in his latter years here.
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