Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
^^ well, again, it wasn’t just Hall - it was RNH and Eberle. Hall, like Nash, Kovalchuk, and Stamkos were all 1OAs who were expected to be a top player for years, so I can understand those. And I don’t think guys that had done what Crosby, Kane and Malkin had by their first contracts are good comparisons either. Ryan was a 2OA.
It was more the optics of signing all 3 RFAs (including a guy like Eberle) to those contracts without any seeming negotiations at all. I’d say it normalized big RFA contracts (whereas the examples you gave were always outliers for exceptional players).
But point taken.
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Thing is all those guys had good years coming into that contract signing and there was lots of discussion that the Oilers couldn’t keep all three. $6M was fair at the time, the players just regressed or stopped developing with the Oilers.
Hall was a first overall coming off 53 points in 61 games when he signed his deal. He was making less than other first overalls like Stamkos.
Eberle was a highly touted first rounder coming off 76 points in 78 games when he signed this 6 x $6M. Eberle was making similar to Ryan or Kessel and was coming off a better year than those guys when they signed.
Nugent-Hopkins was the head scratcher as he was coming off a pretty poor season when he signed his deal (24 points in 40 games) but he was still a first overall pick that had a good rookie season with 52 points the season prior.
Not saying they were all good deals but really saying those deals changed the RFA market is a false narrative. The RFA market was already long gone already at that point.
Hell the Flames themselves had signed Dion to 6 x $6.5M as an RFA prior to any of the Oilers RFA deals.