Gourde wasn't under a rookie contract in last two years... He was on a $1M bridge deal. Hence his current contract is more expensive.

Still doesn't matter .. only 1 year NHL playing experience as an old 27 year old rookie.. doesn't dictate the ridiculous contract

In my opinion it's a pretty regular contract. Maybe a tad overpaid. But then again isn't pretty much everyone a tad overpaid?

A 30M NTC cntract for a 27 year rookie one dimensional forward with ONE full year experience and 70 career polnts?. .. that normal? .. beg to differ .. particularly on a team where 4 other people have same stats and 3 have much beter ones .. all in same age group!!!! .. with that said he will be a top 6 forward for years in Arizona hence the 2nd round also

New Tampa GM deserves an F this year .. Gourde contract .. no deals at trade deadline cause team was soooooo good .. and worst to me .. extending Cooper BEFORE THE FREAKIN playoffs .. what a regular season loser this guy is ..

There's some direct comparisons for Gourde's contract in the league - Teräväinen for instance. Got a big contract after a 64 point season during two year bridge deal, exact same that Gourde did. There's nothing wrong in that contract.

You're probably the saltiest person in the entire planet... Chill the f*ck out, man.

As usual .. you wrong.. Teravainen was a #1 round draft choice with intl experience who had TWO years under his belt in NHL at ages 20 and 21 .. he signed his contract two years ago at age 22 .. Gourde is minor league journeymen who is 27 .. now go make me that cheeseburger .. medium rare as God knows you ain't a GM .. and yea a sprinkle of sea salt for me .. lol

I agree with you on the cost, but I see @BOLTLOVER1 issue with his NTC. In my opinion, for that cap hit, Bolts front office should have been able to sign him with no NTC.
Now, looking at 2020 offseason, Gourde's contract could be the one that pushes Tampa into cap hell. And the problem is that I don't see the Bolts FO trade him away just before his NTC kicks in, it would be kind of a shady move (but in this case it could be justified - Tampa's cap integrity may be at risk)
The difference the NTC makes in our situation is this one:

Case 1) - Gourde not traded by July 1, his NTC kicks in.
- Tampa has to get rid of Callahan + JT Miller for sure this offseason, in order to have enough cap space to re-sign Point. Tampa may also have to ask one of Killorn/Johnson/Palat to waive their clause if they want to have the cap to go after a big UFA fish/have some more cap to make some more improvements. 2020 offseason: Vas, Cirelli, Serg, Cernak need new deals. Killorn becomes M-NTC and can be traded (4.45M cap relief) and Carle 1.83M comes off the books. But it's probably (the use of "probably" is sarcastic here, there's no way that's enough lol) not enough to re-sign them all. At this point Tampa has no more contracts that can be moved in order to re-sign who's left, unless Palat/Johnosn waive their NTC. As you can see, there is too much risk on getting turned down by players to waive their NTC and what Tampa is likely missing in cap space is something like 3-4M.

Case 2) - Gourde traded by July 1.
- Getting rid of Callahan + Gourde frees 11M. At this point the FO could still try to have one of Johnson/Palat/Killorn waive their clause (there's some rumors surrounding both Johnson and Palat) but it is not a situation where "let's hope they waive or we are ****ed/we cannot go after EK/Panarin/whatever", as if they all say no you trade away JT Miller. But before trading him away you ask one the 3 players I just mentioned if they'd be willing to waive, so that you keep JT Miller (definitely the best player out of these 4) and he givers you a safety net in case you need to free another 5.25M cap space next offseason.

Basically, in order not to end up in cap hell territory*, Tampa has to get rid of at least one of Gourde/Johnson/Palat either this offseason or the next one. If not, we'll have to let someone of those RFAs go

*all assuming that Tampa will go after another fairly big contract player this offseason. If not, there won't be troubles but we probably won't improve as much

I know this is kind of confused, I tried my best to get the message across haha

Thxs for proving my point .. why on earth enter the Gourde contract given the team situation .. a good GM looks at ENTIRE team for 1 3 5 plus years.. you can NOT look at individual contracts in a vacuum.. the Gourde contract .. BOTH COST TIME AND NTC ...is ludicrous given Tampas cap challenge and the fact that Gourde is the EPITOME of a system benefit from playing with Point and Kuch .. my 12 year old daughter could get 30 pts playing with those guys.. and with Vaz and and Point contracts coming up .. stupid stupid stupid .. GM will be gone with Cooper and this year and hope new blood washes out the shrimp NTC strategy

C'mon, let's not get toxic. Let's have a healthy discussion

Well, let's say that after we re-signed JT Miller I was assuming we would have let Gourde walk for sure. I really hope the Front office can do something about it, also because I'm pretty sure MTL would be interested in Gourde (also because of their constant search for french-canadien players)
Time will tell

Gourde to MTL could work.. but look at deal above .. best for Tampa .
Who would MTL give for Gourde?

To be honest I see Gourde as a casualty, I wouldn't be too greedy on what we can get in return, as the most important thing for us would be getting rid of him.
I'd be more than happy with a 2nd rounder + a 3rd rounder tbh

Don't except too much from him. He's a joke.

That was something I have discussed with friends before. I agree though with Zwui21, he is a cap casualty, you can't be too greedy when trying to dump contracts. A package of picks would be sufficient IMO.

Wennberg for CBJ got similar value ($4.9M per yr. on 1 years’ production of his entry contract), but no NTC.
Now he has digressed to 3rd line status.
He is no shrimp, but plays like one.
I think he hit a guy once, it was more a situation where he stumbled on his skates and gravity propelled Him into the other player...I don’t think he tried to hit him. Oh, and he shoots the puck on net about once every 3 or 4 games, and he can’t figure out why he doesn’t score more goals.

Dont know to much on Wennberg the player but .. like Teravaienen contract above.. answer the same .. Wennberg was 1st round draft choice with Intl experience and had multiple years experience and signed his 30M deal at age 22 .. interesting both were also in "challenging" cities .. Carolina and Columbus .. where you kind of have to pay up some


Gourde was 26 year old career minor leaguer on team where he had same production as 4 others and less than 3 others.. apples and oranges to Wennberg and Teravainen .. interesting they both have fallen to 3rd line and soon to be 4th in Gourde case as Crunch guys play above him

I’d love to see Boltlover if he was a sabres fan.

Maybe for xmas .. lol

Fire Cooper and BriseBois and you will make at least one team possibly 2 teams very happy.