Quoting: JaredOfLondon
that's not how aging curves work though, i mean there is always a chance he goes zach hyman and has a mutant late career, but usually guys who arnt very good through their late 20s that suddenly have a good year, well, that good year is usually a fluke, and with guys like that 'down the road' more often than not means within the next 80 or so games
He's always been good is the thing, he's a legit #1D stuck on a bad team, yet still has produced quite well despite that. He plays in all situations and logs more minutes than pretty much everyone in the league, has all the tools you could ever ask for with his size, incredible mobility, great puck-moving, elite offensive and defensive IQ, physicality, one of the best shots in the league, all while being a RHD. At worst he's overpaid by 1 mil, but adding him to a team like the Leafs as the cap continues to rise will only increase that value. We'd have to pay way more for that in FA, and that type of player wouldn't be available regardless.
Although you can argue he's overpaid by 1 mil at this point in time, Rielly is probably underpaid by 1 mil, and McCabe and Murphy would be underpaid by at least 2 mil each. We'd be paying our top less than Colorado, Tampa and Vegas, and would stil be among the best D-cores in the league, to go along with a top 3 forward core and very cost effective goaltending for the next couple of years. Jones is legitimately the type of defenseman who could win a Conn Smythe on a team like the Leafs, and we'd be paying him and Murphy only 1 mil more than we paid Muzzin and Brodie almost 5 years ago.