Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
A 4th-liner who is a team leader, one of your top penalty killers, and can move up the lineup to fill in for injuries? Definitely worth 2m, and 2.2 is not a stretch.
What I really don't understand is how a few people seem to think he's worth 2m but are getting bent out of shape over the other $200,000. In the NHL nowadays, that's the kind of money you find under your sofa cushions – less than 0.3% of the cap. There are several easy ways to recoup that money elsewhere once the cap becomes a problem.
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I see where people get that attitude though, as they see cap teams get into trouble over bottom six salaries. 200k more on one more is pocket change, yes, but if you're a contending team in 4 years and all of a sudden you're counting pennies towards the cap and are in danger of losing a top 6 winger to free agency you may look at your bottom six signings over the past four years and go;
200k, 200k and 500k over payment on the 4th line
300, 700k and 200k over payment on the 3rd line
And all of a sudden that 1mil+ in little individual overpayments might be the difference between fitting that major piece in your cap structure and losing him for nothing and then having to overpay a lesser player on the FA market to replace him.
I personally love Bouma, so I'm not really arguing that he isn't worth 2.2 mil, but just offering why I think fans tend to watch the overpayments and not like them, even if they're only slight.
The NHL keeps proving that to win cups you need to pay to keep a contending top 6 together and to do this you need to severely pinch pennies on your bottom six or your bottom six quickly pushes a star/excellent player out of your top 6 and onto another team.