Quoting: Blazingbat11
I'll play devil's advocate here. put Patches with WIN for the past 3 years (Scheiffle playing #1C hockey) and Wheeler with the Habs for the past 3 seasons (missing playoffs 2 times). You don't think it's at all possible that Patches could be putting up similar numbers to what Wheeler has been doing, and oppositely Wheeler falling to the current state that Patches is in with a mess of a roster. People on here are being incredibly short sighted.
I'll reiterate that in my first post on here, I wrote that I don't think Patches gets anywhere near those numbers.
If you dont think Patches gets those numbers than what are we debating?
Patches is sometimes the best player on the ice for the habs, but as fans we all know how streaky he is as a goal scorer. Why should Wheelers contract be a comparable vs. Radulovs contract? Radulov 6.25M × 5 years for the same age seasons as Pacioretty's next contract. With Cap inflation it would be about $6.6M x 5 years.
When Radulov and Pacioretty were with the habs (the last time Pacioretty had somebody to play with) most people would probably say Radulov was the best forward on the team. Radulov is dynamic, just like wheeler. Radulov would produce with pretty much whoever he played with, Pacioretty was pretty cold until he played with Radulov. Pacioretty did not produce last season, lots due to bad luck, but if you want $8.25M/year you're gonna have to back it up with production.