Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
Yep, I bet it works out quite nicely. And for a team like the Sens this is basically necessary if they believe in their young guys and want to be a serious hockey team.
They can't do short show me deals because most young stars will be looking to leave as soon as they can if the Sens give them shorter contracts to prove their worth, unfortunately.
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I agree 100%. It makes a lot of sense to me for small market teams in Canada or the US who are not the most desirable destinations league wide to max the term out of the second contract in order to maximize the window to win. There is a risk for both sides however.
I personally was not pleased when Gaudreau signed because I really wanted the 8 years of term for the exact reason of what happened. He became one of the best players in the league and left as soon as he could get to UFA. Monahan on the flip side was someone I also wanted them to go 8 years with and the team needed to include a 1st after 6 years of his deal to dump the last year of his contract for cap space.
Toronto is 2 years away from making Matthews the highest paid player if he even wants to stay. The contract will likely age better at 27-35 than it would 29-37 but he is going to cost several million more per season if they can keep him.
This deal makes sense for Ottawa for sure. I am a little surprised he got a higher cap hit than Tkachuk however