Quote:
Originally Posted by GullFoss
https://theathletic.com/804501/2019/...ing-different/
Really great article about how Crosby, Malkin and Letang all decided to take less to help the penguins stay competitive.
Interesting parallel for the flames where all the expensive players - Johnny, Monahan, Gio, backlund, lindholm - are all on relatively decent value contracts.
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Every single one of those guys are on fair value deals for when they were signed. They've become steals but they weren't on singing day.
In Johnny's case, he had two years, one where he was calder nominated and the next when he was 6th in scoring. He signed a deal pretty equivalent to Tarasenko, though it was cheaper because he had no offersheet risk and no arb rights. In the years that have followed, the 6th overall in scoring finish proved to be no fluke, and he's one of the top 5 offensive threats when he's playing his best.
Monahan signed the same summer as Mackinnon, Barkov, and Scheifele. He makes more than all of them. He is (comfortably imo but you can debate) the worst of the 4. He was also the worst of the 4 if you watched them all at the time but he had the best counting stats so he got paid.
Giordano signed until he was 39 at 1D money. Of course now we realize Giordano is a unicorn, but the smart money would have been on this contract turning out more like Neal's will than anything else.
Backlund is a 50 point center who will be making 5.35 until he is 34. He is a great player and I love the guy and I expect him to retire a Flame but that is absolutely fair for what he brings. Could he have got more as a UFA, of course, so I suppose this might be the best case for a "guy who's taken a discount".
Lindholm played 5 seasons in Carolina and never broke 50 points, and the Flames paid him like the second line winger that he was. He's killing it this year but there was no indication that he had this much more to give. It would be like signing Sam Bennett to a 7year/3.5mil deal then saying he took a discount if he were to break out a be a 55 point guy.
Treliving has negotiated hard and obtained fair deals for most of his talent. When compared to the Matthews abomination and the Draisaitl lunacy he looks a like a genius, but he's just doing his job and getting what's best for the team. He played Gaudreau's negotiation so well and made use of all his leverage. I expect him to do the same with Tkachuk and all of the other upcoming contracts.