Quoting: Ragsandbluesfan
Because hes better offensively, and defensively, and has more term, and hes much more consistent
How can a guy whose peak goals and points in one season is 1 goal and 5 pts less than Rakell's and whose P/GP is 0.54 vs. Rakel's 0.63 be better offensively? I think you'll struggle to justify that one.
Better defensively? Ok, sure. I won't pretend to have watched Zucker enough to say he's worse defensively. Rakell is ok defensively, but nothing special. So I'll assume Zucker is better. However, I am sure the difference (if any) is small. Zucker isn't some Selke nominated winger or anything, so let's not pretend that his defensive game is leaps and bounds beyond Rakell's. Moreover, they're scoring wingers, so they're getting paid to score and the focus of their game will be putting the puck in the net.
More term? I'd give you that if Zucker wasn't being paid 5.5M vs. Rakell's <$4M? I mean, we're talking about 1 year here. You're going to have to explain why a contending team that is close to cap would value 1 more year at a more expensive rate for a guy who is less offensively-gifted (as established above) than Rakell. Surely, if you're that close to the cap and pinching every $, you take the cheaper and offensively better guy. I mean, Rakell still has 3 full playoff runs left, so it's not like he's on <$4M now and then going to get a massive increase next year or something. Rakell is also younger, so you're getting a player in his prime years for longer. Yeah, I don't think any contending team will say that Zucker is more valuable because he has more term.
Zucker is more consistent? Yeah, he's more consistent because Rakell has 2 x 30+ goal seasons whereas Zucker only has 1. So yeah, he consistently produces less than Rakell. That's not an upside. I mean, if you're specifically referring to Rakell's down year this year, Zucker has a similar points total. Again, don't think consistency adds value. Production is key and Rakell is better at producing.
Rakell is younger, better offensively, cheaper than Zucker. His contract adds massive value because contending teams don't have the cap for big contracts and he comes with enough term for 3 x playoff runs. For these reasons, he should return more than Zucker.