Devon Toews was elite at driving offense when he played for the isles, but he also had mediocre point totals. He gets traded to the Avalanche , was actually worse at driving offense this season but put up a lot more points because the Avs have a bunch of elite finishers. He was better offensively 2 years ago with the isles despite having 20 less points.

the people saying its a bad deal just looked at his stats and didn't watch him play

What happened with the last one?

Those last 3 years are going to hurt. but far from the worst contract. today.

I really like this deal. Pelech is extremely good defensively, and at this clip, he isn't being paid to be a number 1, so it softens the blow to a point where it makes it likely he lives up to this deal more often than not.

D often are not rated on their defensive game very accurately, and I feel like some of the best values right now are when you can get an actually good defensive defensemen signed. Some of the problem can be that players who drive good defensive results aren't often universally agreed upon (Lindell, Jones), but Pelech has very quietly and consistently been between well above average to elite defensively for a few years, and he does so without seeming to hinder his team offensively. I'd rather have a few guys like that driving the D core then overpay for a guy like Jones because he "looks" like a more "complete" D. Problem with me for Jones is that he has always been consistently overrated because he looks smooth, and isn't bad at anything, but that obscures the simple fact he isn't close to elite at anything either, yet he gets talked about as if the sum of his parts still are.

Anyway, Lou has quietly had a great summer. He managed to almost break even on moving out Ladd and Leddy, sounds like he likely has signed some key vet forwards likely at reasonable terms and rates, didn't overpay in expansion (didn't love his choice of players on his list, but it likely made little difference, he was losing a $5M forward like Bailey or Eberle regardless so no harm done). I even like the Panik part of dealing out Leddy.

I think he managed to manage his future assets decently, cleaned up the cap a little, keep a strong team together. He's probably not quite as deserving of the GM of the year title he has, but he certainly hasn't had a bad summer (unless we find out he gave Palmieri an insane deal).

While it's better to buy no years you will regret, it's not always possible. If you feel like you got enough surplus value early in a contract, sometimes that's a worthwhile risk. With the way LTIR often works and ability to move vet players who are a little overpaid later as good vets, if you feel you are getting significant outperformance early, and you don't offer too many contracts that are likely to sour at the same time, I think its reasonable to give a little extra term (even if it won't be great value at that time) to keep the value higher today.

I think Pelech has a low chance of underperforming this contract in the first handful of years, and I think with the current D market, it's a smart bet to lock up an elite defensive D while even moderately good offensive D are getting so overpaid.

No votes are from Dubas worshippers who are still upset on how Lou is still outshining him.

This is why Lou wins another GM of the year. back to back Conference Finals and now signing his star players for 1/4 cheaper of what other GM's do.

Found another one lul

Anytime someone is signed someone tries to make it about the leafs to rile people up.

This was a good signing and Lou often does the. But once in a while we get a horrible contract out of him

Point at 9.5

had a giant breakout year don't know about the 8yrs maybe 6 but good money and him and dobson will prolly be their #1's this season