you think with the lack of top6 C in free agency he wouldnt pull 6? tough take

He had his worse year last year. How did he improve at all.... he had like 6 5v5 points playing with freaking mcdavid

Still, 5 million for someone who may be able to only go at fourth-line minutes or on LITR isn't ideal.

I'd bank on RNH aging like Spezza did though. Not much to worry about.

This seems like shallow philosophy at best.

No GM signs a deal thinking they'll need to buy it out down the road or adds that in as a factor to how the deal is structured. In fact I'd argue that a GM planning that sort of contingency is likely a piss-poor GM to begin with. Requiring the contingency of a buyout in a deal probably means the deal itself is a bad contract. It seems counter-intuitive to what it would take to be a good GM. Now, setting up the actual dollars owed to be less than the AAV in the final years of the deal? There inlies a proper safety net: the contract, akin to player performance, takes the decline of age into consideration. Cash-poor teams that need to hit the cap floor have a desire to take those kinds of contracts on, especially if Edmonton is offering retained salary in such a trade.

LTIR exists as the ultimate safety net should the player get injured: unless we're expecting RNH to completely forget how to play hockey, there's virtually no risk with this deal.

I find instances of thoughts like these more frequently: it's no secret that the NHL is always getting younger but there is no temporal boundary at whatever age (say 32) that suggests that a player must be bad because he's "sports old". Look at how many 36 year-olds had half-point-per-game or higher seasons this year. Look at the longevity of players objectively worse than RNH that have maintained careers into their late 30s.

Teams need to be less afraid of that 8-year term if it means they can save substantially on AAV. Good players will go into those final years with the soft skills they've developed (hockey IQ specifically) and provide more than those players that lacked higher dimensions to their games.

Players of his caliber were getting 3-5 million last year and the cap didn't go up.

And none of them get 8 year terms.

Toffoli
Hoffman
Dadanov
Pageau
Lowry
Coyle

I doubt anyone would give him 6 million x 7 years.

Jesus Christ, it was just an observation.

Spezza plays some of the lighest competition in the league being heavily sheltered by Keefe. If he were being paid 5 million against the cap to do so we would be up in arms over it.

“has improved at both ends of the ice in recent years” - as I said, his game away from the puck in the last few years has improved.

Last season he played the most minutes short handed by and Oilers forward not named Archibald too.

In the final 22 games, Nuge had 12 points playing primarily with Yamamoto/Turris/Kanhun. Hardly ideal line mates, and he also saw his powerplay TOI drop by 2 minutes per game. Points aren’t everything, for Nuge he’s been bringing more to the team when the point totals haven’t been there. It’s still a solid contract for a guy who is good for ~60 points a year, is on the top PP and PK too

Spezza plays some of the lighest competition in the league being heavily sheltered by Keefe. If he were being paid 5 million against the cap to do so we would be up in arms over it.

Where are the other heavily sheltered 37 year olds scoring more points than several teams leading scorers?

Players of his caliber were getting 3-5 million last year and the cap didn't go up.

And none of them get 8 year terms.

Toffoli
Hoffman
Dadanov
Pageau
Lowry
Coyle

I doubt anyone would give him 6 million x 7 years.

The term here is god awful 8 years for someone who isn’t really a star the money is good though so a meh signing

toffoli - not a C
hoffman - 3 years older, one trick PP pony
dadanov - not a C, & lol
Pageau - career high 43pts
Lowry - 3rd line C, never hit 30pts
Coyle - perenial 30-40pt guy

youre caparables are a bit laughable,
only player that plays PP1 & PK's on ur list is Toffoli, who as stated above doesnt play centre.

toffoli - not a C
hoffman - 3 years older, one trick PP pony
dadanov - not a C, & lol
Pageau - career high 43pts
Lowry - 3rd line C, never hit 30pts
Coyle - perenial 30-40pt guy

youre caparables are a bit laughable,
only player that plays PP1 & PK's on ur list is Toffoli, who as stated above doesnt play centre.

Not sure if the RNH deal is *that* hot given the lengthy term. Had a really rough season production wise at 5-on-5 despite playing 72 percent of his minutes with McDavid or Draisaitl. Could just be poor luck though pic.twitter.com/6rrpbVvUcW

— #1 montreal canadiens fan (@domluszczyszyn) June 29, 2021

Could have made more on open market

but I guess he wanted term

Contract though does lower market prices for other similar players so thats good.

RNH would have made so much more as a UFA... Even become the Kraken's captain!

Good for EDM. Also good for MTL, since this contract will be Danault's ceiling.

It's so crazy to me how people go "cap hit is AMAZING, but term kinda WORRYING???" as implying you can just chose to go low on both. Clearly player and team have two parameters they go back and forth on - players wants as many years for as much money as possible (typically, especially closer to their 30's), and teams typically the opposite. You should evaluate term and cap hit together.

RNH is a good player. Not amazing, but really good. And I think for that, this is a good contract. For most competing teams you're willing to give up some length to reduce the cap hit. HOWEVER, in Edmonton's case I feel like this very much depends on the status of McDavid. If he's prepared to say an Oiler, this makes little sense. You already have a young superstar for enough years for this contract to hurt. If he's potentially looking to leave I think it's more reasonable to make a push for the now and take some damage later.