So, what's next for Fletcher? Overpaying Gardiner?

It seems like Philly wants to win now...Patrick and Frost playing as the 2C and 3C would limit the flyers.

I appreciate your choosing Brown as a comp because both players are two-way forwards whose contributions exceed raw point totals. Arguably center is a bit more valuable, but let's shelve that for a more fundamental contrast:

Dustin Brown has 3 years left on his deal and he will turn 35 in November. He will be 37 during the last season of the deal.
Hayes recently turned 27 years old in May. He will be 33 during the last season of his new deal.
When Dustin Brown signed his deal before the 14-15 season, it was 8.5% of the salary cap.
Depending upon whether the cap is set to $82 or $83 million for 19-20, Hayes' deal is expected to be between 8.6-8.71% of the salary cap.

In sum, Hayes' deal is by 1-2 tenths of a percent more expensive than Brown's, but does not extend well into what should probably be retirement years. Brown's deal is significantly worse because of the age/term factor. This isn't to say UFA isn't expensive; it absolutely is. 8.6-8.7% of the cap is nothing to sneeze at. The term could be a year shorter and be more attractive, but if the salary is front loaded, then the contract is probably going to be quite marketable to a cap floor team that many years down the line. We'll get those details later.

(Edit) P.S. In the 3 seasons leading up to that deal, Brown had 207GP / 110Pts / 0.53 PPG

Oh no baby what is you doin?

7.15 Million for a guy that has topped out at 25 goals and 55 points, what in the hell???

Well, to be fair, both Hayes and Nylander signings look horrendous. But yes, it is comforting to know that Dubass is not the only moron in town.

Lol. one of those things are blatantly false. The other is that Hayes signing looks Horrendous

What a bad contract. So sooooo happy the Jets stayed away from this 1000000%!!!!

As a CHI fan, I'd like to thank Fletcher for taking Hayes before Bowman could start talking to him. I don't want him even at $5M hit.

Expected any team to overpay Hayes since he's an allround center who'll enter his prime and just finished a career season. Thought he could get 6.75 but the Flyers even overpaid that.

William Karlsson probably started his party. Vegas is doomed, especially since the rumours that the cap will be below 82m

My bad. You're right. But I think the point still stands.

More than 100 peoples says it's a bad contract.....I wonder what was Fletcher thinking

Hockey pundits spend more time talking about giving higher end and younger talent too much money as if that's what causes cap problems. It's turning a 3 picks,, Radko Gudas and about $16M in cap space into Hayes, Niskanen and Braun that kills a teams cap.

Think about that, the combination of those 3 players essentially cost about $18M in cap space (when you factor in the $1M retained on Gudas). There will be tonnes of talk about how Toronto or Tampa might have trouble filling out a good line up when they each inevitably have 45+% of their payroll dolled out to their core 4-6 players, but those deals aren't the ones that kill you, it's garbage like this. In fact, if the Leafs didn't have to contend with Zaitsev or Marleau, or Tampa didn't have Callahan and Girardi on the books, both teams could comfortably sign their RFAs, and still have room to upgrade while having all of their best players under contract for a few years as the cap rises.

Yes on many of your points. Except Tampa is a bad example. LA is a great example.

Girardi isnt on Tampa's books and Callahan's contract is up when Tampa have to resign Sergachev, Vasilevskiy, Cirelli and Joeseph.

Tampa's problem isnt overpaying aging vets its handing out NTCs to role players and middle 6 guys.

O'Brien isn't even on the NHL radar. And I don't see how this move stunts the growth of any of those players. There are still top-9 spots for both of them.

I dont trust anyone without a pfp and a blue checkmark so gtfoh

You sure about that Bri Guy?

I see that there's now a NTC posted. I'm still gonna predict that this deal ends in a buyout.

So they dump him in AZ in a few years, BFD.

His entire contract is a NTC.

Just as I thought it couldn't get worse. OH GOD THE NTC.

Has the entire league lost its mind?!?!

Sounds reasonable for him ... my guess for Fletcher this summer is:

$9,500,000 x 7 = Joe Pavelski
$8,500,000 x 7 = Mats Zuccarello
$7,150,000 x 7 = Kevin Hayes
$5,500,000 x 5 = Derek Brassard
$3,500,000 x 4 = Dion Phaneuf
$3,500,000 x 4 = Ben Lovejoy

Then he'll move Couturier, Provorov, Sanheim and Konecny for cap-space.

Nylander's signing looks great ATM ... So I'm not sure what your talking about?

He looked very out of shape at first:

3 points in his first 21 games = Horrendous (on pace for 12 points over 82 games).

But then he caught up with everyone:

24 points in his last 33 games = Pretty Good (on pace for 60 points over 82 games).

And he did that while playing:

- Around 15 minutes a night (not on the 1st power-play)
- On the 3rd line with Brown and Marleau (not Matthews)
- With 5.4% shooting on the year (50% of his career average)

Max Domi had the exact same type of season (6% shooting) before he was traded.
He bounced back real quick ... and so will Nylander.

What did William Karlsson do?

He scored 43 goals and then signed a 1-Year $5,250,000 contract.