Joined: Apr 2017
Posts: 266
Likes: 168
So he’s making high 3rd line or low 2nd line money. Will he be fulfilling that role (and doing it well) on the Senators for the duration of the contract? Almost certainly. Y1 and maybe Y2 will be a bit of an overpay but the value for Y3-Y6 far outweigh that. Moreover it’s not like the Sens will be close to the cap in Y1 or Y2 so I don’t think there’s really any downside.
From the perspective of the organization, it locks up a forward who can be marketed as part of a bright young core that will (one day) return this bereft sad sack of a franchise back to respectability. I’m truly bewildered that a bridge deal wasn’t insisted on by the player and his agent as there’s a 90% chance he’d be making more money in the long-term if he went that route. That said there’s nothing wrong with saying yes to a guaranteed $28.5M. And he’ll still be young enough to cash in big when he hits UFA when this contract is over.