Quote:
Originally Posted by OptimalTates
So, again ignoring Calgary's 8 year signing ability, I would say "most" comparable but not entirely "fair". As good as Panarin was, he wasn't coming off a year Gaudreau had. Did everyone offering Panarin that 12.5M contract assume on a good team he would be a 110 point player like he almost instantly become? He was crushing it on a team without much firepower but he was still only 18th in scoring the off-season he signed (87 points in 79 games) I think he, somewhat and somehow, exceeded expectations immediately. Gaudreau on the other hand is a 110 point player already finishing tied for second.
But if there were four teams at least offering the 18th leading scorer winger Panarin 11.5M+ when the cap was 81.5M, why would there be no team offering Gaudreau, the second leading scorer, 11.5M+ when the cap is higher? Much like Panarin, I don't expect Gaudreau to sign with the team that simply offers him the highest AAV, but if he did, I would expect that to be at least 12M.
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Panarin's previous 2 and previous 3 years were better than Johnny's, as well as his career playoff numbers.
Johnny turns 29 in August. Panarain [allegedly] turned 28 in the October he signed his deal.
And then there is the UFA market context. Panarin's competition was:
Pavelski
Duchene*
Anders Lee*
Zuccarello
Bobrovsky
Tyler Myers
*Both Duchene and Lee signed 7 year deals on July 1 with their existing teams. Curious how those played out - was 8 yrs was ever on the table? Interesting that it's both old schools GMs (Poile and Lou) - did they give the players a few hours to explore UFA before their best deal came off the table?