Is Mangiapane a top 6 forward on this team for more than 2 years?
Maybe, but is it ideal?
How much higher is his ceiling? Right now I think he is the 6th best forward on the team but for how long? Dubé may pass him two weeks into the season.
Is Pelletier, Pettersen, Zavgorodniy, Zary or someone else going to go past him in the next two years? Next year's first rounder?
So important to project forward with this sort of player. And I think he's great but I think he's a ultimately a third liner who can play up when needed but mostly provides secondary scoring and energy. I think he could become a decent penalty killer too.
For now I would give him 2x2.25 and if it goes to arbitration I would walk away from anything above 3x2.75.
I having been thinking about this a lot the last couple of years and I coming around to the belief that it is better to be a more ruthless GM.
Team planning would be my mantra and what the player will/may be going forward will outweigh anything he has done.
I have become a great believer in no long term contracts. Nothing more than 5 years. Long contracts and free agents contracts have too high a failure rate. Doesn't even matter how good the player is at contract time. Look at Henrik Lundquist he was great but his contract became a burden. Look at that Carey Price contract. He is great but there's no way that doesn't become a burden. Bobrovsky's already is. All those Red Wing contracts at the end of their peak. San Jose right now. Anaheim is a ####ty team yet they are over the cap. Toews, Kane, Keith and Seabrook. Three of them are still good but Chicago is a weak team. Toronto and Edmonton flailing about every year to create depth and build a defense. Got nothing of real consequence to show for all those huge salaries.
You can argue that it is the cost of doing business and that superstars are going to get paid sure. You can also argue that you are going to lose some important pieces because they don't get the term or salary they expect. But maybe you need to buck that paradigm and always, and I mean always, put the team first. It's harsh and risky but with good scouts, amateur and pro, good develepment it could work.
Forget Tanev I wouldn't have given Giordano his contract and I love him. Should have been a year shorter. Maybe two.
I give Mangiapane 2 years at a 3rd liner salary because that is what he is and doesn't project to be much higher. He may advance higher and if he does he gets a better contract in 2 years.
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