Quote:
Originally Posted by tvp2003
I see what you're saying -- my point is that you're going to have to pay market (or even above market) for certain players and its not the end of the world if your captain and leader is one of them. The GM's job isn't to assemble the most over-performing contracts available -- it's to put together a team that can compete for Stanley Cups!
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And yet Chiarelli was fired two seasons after making the Finals. And if the Kings don't make the playoffs and win a round or two this year people will start wondering about Lombardi. Managing the cap is a huge part of the job of GMing an NHL team in 2015. It's the difference between engineering a narrow window for success and a wide one.
I understand you have to pay to keep your top players. But it's a matter of timing, value, and age. Negotiating a big 8-year contract where you get 4 years of the player's prime at the cost of overpaying for the final 4 years may be worth it. However, Gio won't be 29 or even 30 when his next contract kicks in - he'll be 33. That means,
optimistically, he'll have maybe 2 more seasons of top play left in him. So is getting 2 years of a player's prime worth overpaying him for 5 or 6 years? I don't think it is.