We'd all love to have a 27 year old Wilson. I doubt any of us would want to have the player a 33 year old Tom wilson is likely to be. My bigger thought is I am not sure what a 30 or 31 year old Wilson will look like. I don't see the need to have signed this before say January of this year.

does it still count against the cap if a player is suspended? because that might be washingtons best hope long term with this contract

HE MISSED 49 GAMES LAST SEASON. DESTROYED KNEES. CONCUSSION HISTORY.

This contract is terrible from day one. $9M?!? What the ...

People need to shut up about Anderson's contract from now on.

...Why?

No bc they will likely get 4 years out of him at the lower cap hit then have him on LTIR for the remaining 3 rather than have him at a higher cap hit for the 4 years. Saves 2m / year while active.

So I just found a random article of power forwards and grabbed those who's prime were after 1995 and added guys I could think of more recently. This is when their first significant decline happened (for the super stars it was usually point per game to 50ish points, for the more Wilson level offense it was 50ish points to 30 ish points)

Split into two groups: good top 6 forwards (akin to Wilson)
Lucic 29
Wendell Clark 31 (though rebounded at 32, then out of the league after 33) *** As a leafs fan I feel he should be in the stars section, but I suspect not actually. He's just special to us
Bertuzzi 31 or 32 (hard to tell as 15 gp at 31)
Hartnell: hard to say was inconsistent year to year. But significant decline at 34
Wayne Simmonds: 30
David Clarkson 29

Stars
Jamie Benn 29 (though he just had a rebound year at 33 ??)
Lindros (29 rebounded a bit at 30 but only played 30 odd games, then continued a decline)
Keith Tkachuk 34, but you could probably argue 36, seems to have been gradual
John LeClair 31 or 32 (hard to say as played less than 20 games at 31)

Reminder he is 29 this upcoming season the deal starts at 30
Its quite plausible he declines this season before the deal even starts or the first year or so.
Its most likely he declines by about year 4 of the deal. Its a bad deal

I guess the hope is he LTIRetires, not goes the way of Lucic

Don’t like this. It’s too long, too much money and buyout protected with all the signing bonuses. He’s a great player and leader, it’s just I wouldn’t have given him this much term.

I don't think he keeps it up, even if his knee is 100%. He has slightly changed his style of play over the last 2-4 seasons, but this could easily look like a Weber/Voracek LTIR situation before it ends.

Which is one thing. But if he just declines and keeps playing like Simmonds or Lucic it's another

They hope would be that he becomes mcdavid level good and we win 5 cups. Imo / most realistically he gives us 3-4really good years 1/2 bad years and goes away for the last year or 2 of his deal.

Wilson is only good for being dirty.

I suspect the team knows this contract is not likely to age well, but they went for it anyway for a few reasons:

1) I’m not sure they’re on a path to contend for another cup before Ovechkin retires, but if that’s their goal, they need Wilson and would give him whatever it took to keep him from going to free agency, where he would be in high demand barring some disaster between now and then.

2) After Ovechkin retires, they’ll be starting a long rebuild, so they don’t care if they’re saddled with a bad contract then. Cap space in the early years of the contract is more important, so better to go long term with a lower AAV than what it would cost to sign him short term.

3) His recent injury history doesn’t concern them too much, because if things get worse he could qualify for LTIR, which would free them from this bad contract.

The thing I think they’re likely to regret most is the big signing bonuses in the last two years, which effectively eliminate the possibility of a buyout. This makes me think the team just rolled over and gave him whatever he asked for. It also tells me that even Wilson doesn’t think he’ll be worth anywhere near what they’ll be paying him by then. Otherwise he could potentially benefit from a buyout by signing another contract somewhere else that would pay him more than what he lost from the buyout.

Why wait? It should be there now. Career high of 24 goals, only once surpassed 44 points, 29 years old and now signed until he's 37! That's not worth $6.5M x 7.

I can't believe anyone voted yes, but I guess there are some diehard Caps fans out there.

Physicality does not equal success. The most physical teams last year were, in order, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Nashville, Philadelphia, New York Islanders and Arizona. Vegas was 14th.

They were 12th of the 16 playoff teams for hits/60 in the postseason.

I have no idea what Vegas' Cup win has to do with Tom Wilson. I don't see a connection.

Why not just wait until next summer when he's UFA? Do they really think he's gonna explode for 30G+ after coming off an injury-plagued season? We've seen these types of contracts backfire so many times. I just don't see the upside.

Caps fans are really something eh? Tom Wilson becoming McDavid level of player.......... Did you even think before pressing send? For one, McDavid is 26 years of age Wilson is 29. Second, McDavid is literally one of a kind.

The only trajectory for Wilson is a decline not an increase in production.

Brutal…caps are going to be in rough shape once Ovechkin hangs ‘em up.

Yikes. Wilson is, at best, a complimentary winger that can shoot the puck but struggles in most other areas, except physicality. This will age similar to how the Lucic deal aged.

By the time the deal expires, 6.5 million will be a standard 3rd liner contract.

Honestly, I would be more concerned that it is effectively buyout proof for the team holding it the last few seasons.

Will be fine throughout Ovi's competition window assuming Wilson doesn't completely fall off a cliff. After that? Might be a bit scuffed as the kids say.

Another case of a team paying someone for what they've done, not what they'll do. Caps are inundated with bad contracts of players from the 2018 Cup team. But, with Ovechkin still scoring at an elite level, they can't exactly start a rebuild. They just gotta hope some of their aging stars rebound from last season, I suppose.

I was very skeptical about it

Hey WSH, stop copying our bad contracting habits

$6.5m is good value for the next 3-4 seasons but that's too much term, wow.

but probably those few extra years were what convinced him to take $6.5m

He may be (have been) a Hockey Unicorn but this deal looks like an Albatross!