Quote:
Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce
It is a reasonable deal, from the standpoint of what does it cost today to sign a UFA who has been statistically the 2nd best scoring forward in the league for a couple years now.
But it's not any kind of hometown discount. Not even a single $ worth. I even speculated a few weeks ago that a discount would be a total of $111, so aav was under 14, but the Oilers didn't even get that. That is what you have to pay, whether actually worth it of not. Where Rishaug is a moron is say he left half a million on the table.
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Yeah, it’s not any kind of discount, but they paid market price for a top player who will likely continue to be a top player for the next 5 years and first 4 years of the deal, along with McDavid who likely has another 5-7 years of top performance left in him.
Personally, I think the debate around giving him max term is pointless. They had to. They were never getting close to the value they’d be giving up over the next 5 years through a trade, and certainly not by just letting him walk. Generally I agree with the sentiment that the last few years don’t really matter (because yes, the cap will go up, and by year 6 they’re likely looking at a rebuild anyway so his contract does not matter). Where this kind of uniquely screws the Oilers is actually in the first few years where the cap isn’t going up fast enough and McDavid is looking at a huge increase as well. This would be OK if they were in a good position, but they’re starting from an absolutely dismal cap situation as it stands today, which is only going to get worse next year and significantly worse the year after.
If the Flames had signed Gaudreau and Tkachuk to big money, max term deals they would have been fine because they had a solid team around them, something resembling a pipeline, and cap flexibility with the way certain contracts were set to expire. The Oilers basically only have this year before their depth becomes even more depleted to manage the further step into cap hell they’re taking.