Quote:
Originally Posted by dino7c
Where are these SMRT GMs that don't hand out 7/8 year deals?
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Really it's all situation dependent.
GMs should want to keep 7/8 year deals for their young players. Giving your stars coming off ELCs these long term deals tends to work.
Where GMs need to be more selective is giving players 29+ contracts that are 7/8 year deals.
IMO good GMs lock up their young players to 7/8 year deals, but are better at letting older players (29+) who aren't super stars walk or moving them instead of re-signing them to 7/8 year deals. (aka do the opposite of what Treliving did with Neal/Tkachuk)
As a fan of a small market team a max 5 year deal would terrify me. Players are UFAs generally after 7/8 seasons.
3 Year ELC
5 Year Max Contract
UFA in year 8 at 27/28 years old...that seems bad for a market like the Flames.
Edit: Thought of a decent example that started well (that we won't like) which is Florida.
He gave the guys that are superstars 8 year deals (Barkov, Tkachuk).
They made the tough decision to move Huberdeau and Weegar before giving them 8 year deals (looks like the right call for Huberdeau, but Weegar's deal looks good)
Forsling's 8 year deal is good because he's played like a superstar, and the $5.75M aav is a HUGE discount.
But I think now you could potentially question giving both Reinhart and Verhaeghe 8 year deals. Personally I probably would have kept Reinhart and considered moving Verhaeghe to try to get younger/open up some cap room.
I feel like they might make the decision to walk away from Ekblad too.