So Lou gave him 4 years so he could stay under the cap, obviously. If this were a 1-year deal, what would the AAV have been...$3M??? I cant see why he's worth so much more than Maroon.
If there was no salary cap, this would be fine, and you'd love to see guys like this get paid. But there unfortunately is a salary cap, and that makes this an oof signing
It's only b/c of the cap that he got 4 years. That was the only way to fit him under the cap. Otherwise, the AAV would've been too high. This way Lou can just buy him out after 1-2 years. No bonus after 1st year. It's clever work by Lou, except he's not worth it, lol.
Honestly, if this was one year, I might not mind it so much, since that fourth line is dynamite. But FOUR years? He'll be 35 by the end of this. It's debatable if he'll even have an NHL job by year two or three.
Also, to put this into context, Anthony Duclair got 200k more than Matt Martin. If the Islanders made a simple move like replacing Ross Johnston with Austin Czarnik, they could have afforded Duclair over Matt Martin.
Come NHL playoffs we always see teams which one a solid first line and 3 lunch pail guys over achieve and knock out a contender, which is build with 3 solid lines and a pansy 4th line. Think about it. What about the money Reeves gets >? he is a 700K material too.