Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
A long term deal with Bennett would be terrific, but as has been pointed out numerous times this is almost certainly not going to happen. As badly as the Flames want to lock Bennett in for six or more years his agent will not cooperate.
A two or three year deal is what will happen because that is the most Bennett will want to commit to in order to maximize his own earning potential.
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But, I'm not saying the flames should try and get Bennett on the cheap.
Instead, I'm suggesting his next 2 years are going to be at pretty low pay for Bennett relative to his next 6 years if her performs as expected. But the next two years also comes during a period where the flames have excess cap space. That creates a large incentive to go long-term with Bennett to optimize cap space for the organization.
In other words signing Bennett long-term and paying Bennett fairly aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
I remember making this exact point with Backlund a few years ago - rather than sign him for 3 years at $3.5m and then re-signing him for another 3 years at $6m+, why not sign him for 6 years at $5m right at the beginning in order to better manage the cap.