Nick Schmaltz has signed a new contract with the Arizona Coyotes.

At that cap hit this kind of long-term contract is pretty low-risk imo, good signing

High Risk low reward IMO.

180 Career NHL games and hasn't proven much in a large portion. At best, you have a top 2nd line center for 6 Million Dollars. At worse, you have a decent 3rd line center. I don't see how this makes much sense for Arizona.

Wow, Interesting signing for sure. My knee jerk response was this is a good contract, but it was also to compare this with William Nylander. I'm not worried about the injury. Those happen unfortunately, and to everyone. I'm kinda just tired of players getting paid for what they can be vs. what they've actually done. Those contracts always worry me. I'm a Hawks fan and have watched MANY of his games even with UND. Schmaltz is a really good player, but really hasn't done much to deserve this contract....part of that is injury related...I get it. AND Again, He certainly does have talent. Ultimately I guess I'm fine it with and feel like it's less of a risk than Nylander because AZ has a TON of cap space and can afford to make a risk or two. I also think Schmaltz is a great locker room guy and most importantly a hard worker. Makes me more confident he'll live up to this contract.

Big boy contract. Came outta nowhere

Horrible signing from a hawks fan. Horrible face off numbers, trash corsi, hesitates when he shoots 8 times out of 10. If Arizona puts any sort of trade clause in there, the gym should be fired

got a question here ... if he does 5.850 per season what is going to be the cap hit of Skinner or the other?? That seem a bit high for a youngster.

Skinner will get 8.5-8.8. If he goes FA route then a dumb team will pay him over 9

HAHAHAHA Clueless Chayka at it again

He's good but that's a bit risky.

This is an overpay by about $2M-3M

I like the player but WOW! this is an overpaying contract if I have ever saw one. Ouch! Must have a great agent.

I don't get it at all. Schmaltz doesn't have a ton of leverage here and he still got big money. His offensive numbers were likely inflated from playing alongside Kane in CHI. I'd much rather have Drouin at $5.5M and Larkin is only $250k higher at $6.1M AAV and he's far superior. I thought Schmaltz would sign for around $4.5M AAV on a six year deal. This is an overpay, in my opinion. Does ARI really see him as a potential #1 Center scoring 70+ points on a regular basis? I don't.

Just for the recored, Nylander received about $1.5M AAV more than he should've too. But that was a unique experience. ARI isn't on the clock here. They could've held out.

Considering Skinner has never eclipsed 63 points in a season, paying him Kucherov money would be absolute insanity. I'd offer $7.5M on a six year deal...and even that's very risky. He's pretty one-dimensional. But someone will overpay by 20% or so. It's the nature of the UFA market. It's the wrong way to build a successful franchise and these types of contracts seldom seem to pay off.

Bad Signing off one decent season,

Compare this to Alex Tuch or Jake Guentzel coming off ELCs,

the contract he's getting for what he's done in comparison is just bad.

This completely screws Toronto,

what are Kapanen and Johnson gonna ask for after this?

Just for the record, Nylander was not overpaid by 1.5 million. It was 500k at the absolute most, and his underlying numbers show him playing up to that tiny overpay already, just being down on luck. Stop perpetuating this myth

Skinner’s a winger so it’s hard to compare. I have him making 7.0 to 8.0M on a 7y (@ 7M) to 5y (@ 8M) deal.

Not crazy about this signing. It’s at least a half million dollar overpay and I fail to see the big upside. He’s an average 2nd line centre, but it seems even second line centres are getting upwards of $6M these days.

I would stand to argue that playing with Kane did very little to inflate his numbers based on what other Hawks fans have told me. They said the reason he never shot the puck, which is what made everyone the angriest was because he felt too much pressure to pass it to Kane rather than to trust himself to score. In addition to that, we saw in his brief stint with the Coyotes he had 14 points in 17 games, made Keller play better, and increased our powerplay% by around 4%, obviously all without Kane.

Secondly, you say you don't see him being a number one Center, and I agree with you, but he's not even making #1 center money now, much less 3-4 years down the line with the cap likely continuing to rise. I know there are bargain contracts, but those shouldn't be the baseline for comparisons. I think it's a fair deal where both sides are getting reasonable return.

Sure, there's a risk factor with this deal, but that's how you get bargain contracts in the first place, and Arizona has the cap space and the urgency to take some risks.

Nylander is on .5 points per game pace despite playing on one of the top offensive teams in the entire league. That number is probably the worst in the league for any Forward under the age of 25 who makes over $6M AAV. He's making over $10M this year alone. At his salary he should be between 65-75 points, especially b/c he's pretty one dimensional. He's not a very good defensive player. His contract was based mostly on expectations. Expectations which he has not lived up to yet. Maybe he will be a 75 point player for years to come, but I've always seen this contract as an overpay, and my argument is supported by his stats and the Leafs cap situation moving forward. There's only so much offense to go around when the Leafs already have Matthews, Marner, and Tavares. To be perfectly honest, I'd rather have Schmaltz at $5.8M.

It's obviously total speculation b/c none of us were privy to these negotiations. I just think there's limited upside. I don't think it'll be a disastrous deal, I just think he was slightly overpaid. Cap space is one of ARI greatest assets, and every dollar counts when you're making a run. Nobody really criticized the Marleau contract and now TOR would love to have a do-over on that one. TOR had tons of cap space when Lou signed Marleau, and now they're in a jam.

chayka is the reason why the Coyotes are even close to a playoff spot

Chayka has proven that he's good at sabermetrics trades, and TERRIBLE at player development. That's all he's proven...it's 100% accurate...and it's really not arguable.

That's not entirely true b/c many of his key acquisitions have missed a substantial number of games with injuries this season. I give credit to Tocchet for getting the most out of his players and for playing to their identity of defense and goaltending. Also, the Western Conference is a little weak near the bottom and ARI has capitalized on the poor play of teams like EDM, COL, LAK, and ANA...All of which have far more talent at most positions.

You are counting the time it took him to get in shape, which was to be expected. He took longer than I think some expected him to do, but since his return to form he is a ppg player and has been punching big numbers in everything but luck and the PP. Here is Marner compared to Nylander THIS YEAR INCLUDING THE PART WHERE HE WAS GETTING IN SHAPE.



Now Nylander is used on Matthews line which is played like a 1B to the JT line's 1A, but the adjusted difference in respective numbers should not be overly large.
Basically, Nylander is snake bitten.