Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
You'll never end up with long lasting "good deals" then, and it's incredibly difficult to succeed if you fail to do that.
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I think there's a happy medium. Signing a rather unproven talent to 4.6M a year for over half a decade doesn't make sense. Especially when you consider in 6 years that would make him a 26 year old UFA who's going to be commanding a huge contract anyways if he does grow into the player you are hoping for when you sign him to 4.6M.
Yakupov had 42-46-88 in 192 games (pro-rated to 38 points over 82 games) when he signed his extension at 21. He had even "turned the corner" under Todd Nelson and looking much better right before signing his extension. Where would the Oilers be if they had been saddled with Yakupov at 4.6M right now while trying to re-sign Draisaitl and McDavid?
Bennett has 63 points in 159 games (pro-rated to 32 points over 82 games) for comparison.
The difference with a player like Josi was Josi was already a stud when he signed that contract. It wasn't so much potential. Even if Josi never excelled, as long as he didn't regress that contract would have been worth it. He may have only played 2 seasons, but his sophomore season saw him become a pillar for that franchise. He was playing 24 minutes a night. Hell, he single highhandedly lead the Swiss to silver in the World Championships that year. Most people saw Josi at already being at that 4M level and that contract as a future steal. It's pretty disingenuous to compare the two at all. If Bennett wanted to sign the going rate for a 13 goal scorer for the next 6 years, we'd all jump on that, but of course that's not the case and it's far lower than 4.6M. Unless you're Brouwer.
It would be far fairer comparing Josi and Draisaitl. Despite only having two and some seasons under his belt, we would all lose our collective #### if the Oilers were able to sign Draisaitl to anything remotely resembling Josi's contract.