Edited Jul. 4, 2017 at 8:07 p.m.
Quoting: goldie078
STL offering $7x7y : 3 RFA years + 4 UFA years
TOR offering next year $7x7y : 2 RFA years + 5 UFA years
If an RFA year = $3 million, UFA year = $10 million
7y today = $49 million
7y next year = $56 million
I'm not trying to discourage the idea, but this is the math considered behind the headline numbers. Would you still be up for the gambit at a $8 million x 7 extension that finishes when Parayko is age 32/33 in the 2025-2026 season?
Hmmm. I hadn't quite realized how close 2020 and his UFA years were.
Paying for 5 UFA years at a pricey, but still reasonable, RFA rate is likely a no go from the player's side. So, the mega-extension was optimistic.
Would I be willing to pay for his last 2 RFA years and 2-3 of his UFA ones at $7-7.5m, after which he can chase a $9m or whatever per year elsewhere? Even at the cost of 4 1st rounders, yes. That's 5 or 6 years with a legit top-pairing guy, which the Leafs don't currently have. And, if they were to get that, I think Leafs would be favorites to come out of the East for as long as Parayko and the rest are held together and healthy.
But the difference between $7 and $8 per year doesn't really bother me. I'm expecting the Leafs will keep Matthews, Nylander, Marner, and Rielly around long term (Liljegren if he pans out -- still 4-5 years before that has real cap implications) and be pretty ruthless about moving out sentimental favorites (everyone else... ) for picks/prospects and working in cost-effective replacements -- from the prospect pipeline ideally. So, i'm expecting they'd be tying up about half their cap up in a 5 skater core by 2019-20 (Matthews @ 12m, Marner @ 8m, Nylander @ 8m, Rielly still @ 5m, Parayko @ 7.5 = ~41m in 2019-20).