Edited Dec. 20, 2022 at 12:21 a.m.
Quoting: Juiceman
Come on, Hughes, and Reilly are basically getting paid the exact same... Hughes is younger and better so it is a better contract... It isn't rocket science. We aren't talking about his next contract. We are talking about his current one... Saying his current contract is worse because his next contract will be more expensive is irrelevant
Him being younger, "better", and getting paid "basically the same" would have been relevant if they had the same term, but Rielly has 3 more years than him, so
there's nothing special about Hughes' current contract. The reason why I'm mentioning the next contract is to point out that the shorter term isn't beneficial at all, and because you said Rielly is signed through his 30s.
I'm opposing the argument that because Hughes is younger and supposedly better, he therefore automatically has the better contract which would have been true if there was an advantage to his contract but there isn't as he's not getting paid less and he has less term. If I were to say Makar is "better offensively, better defensively, and [has] a better contract" than Hughes, it's really meaningless to mention Makar's contract in trying to say he's more valuable because there's nothing special about his contract as he's getting paid more for the same term. Makar's contract does not add to his value vs Hughes at all. In the case of Hughes vs Rielly, Hughes has 3 fewer years of team control and is getting paid more even if it's only slightly.
I'm not saying Hughes' contract is worse than Rielly's, I'm just saying it's not better. Rielly is signed for the best of his UFA years (Hughes only 1) and has more term than Hughes by 3 years and a slightly lower AAV. So Hughes' contract has no bearing on him being more valuable than Rielly.
Worth noting that offensively, Rielly and Hughes are actually very close (for now). Not sure how they match up defensively but I'll just assume Hughes is better. So it's not a matter of Rielly not being "worth" his contract and Hughes being "worth" his either. If anything, Rielly has a preferable contract.