Quote:
Originally Posted by Iggy_12
Its almost comical that every contract we sign blows up in our face. What was the last good one we signed? Lindholm? Raz? counter that with about 5 horrible ones.
this franchise is a disaster, no one knows the direction, from top to bottom its a circus. Its exhausting cheering for this team, perpetual mediocracy. We deserve better than this
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I actually think the majority of large long-term contracts produce suboptimal results unless you have a very rare, spectacular elite player like Mackinnon or McDavid.
It’s very, very, very straightforward and basic here. These are men trying to form a career and make millions of dollars. Not win a cup. Winning a cup is a priority behind making millions of dollars. And you can’t even blame them for that sequence of priorities, but you sure as hell can question their efforts after they get paid.
So the priority is making millions, so you work your tail off to get to the level to make your multimillion contract and once that’s signed it is 100% guaranteed.
Now- why try after that? I mean, personal pride, teammates, all those things matter I’m sure- to varying degrees based on each individual. But, try as hard as you did to get that contract? Meh.
And I’m sure it’s not even a conscious choice for some of these guys. But once you remove that primary carrot driver, why would they work as hard? Why do they perform better in contract years? We have signed huge long-term deals.
Personally, I would design a team around shorter deals and overpay if possible unless the players are extremely elite. I think it’s somewhat forgivable for guys like Huberdeau who scored 100+ points but Kadri? That was very risky from the get go. Plus- he even had won his cup, so all he needed now was his retirement contract. I guess now fans just get to watch him float around for 7 years. Real professional Nazem. Sweet.