Letang at the end of his contract

The Penguins are on the hook if there's a signing bonus in second year or later (initial reports say no, but aren't confirmed yet) OR if it's a front-loaded contract (right now, CapFriendly is showing pay spread out evenly over the length of the contract). Won't know for sure until it's confirmed.

https://www.capfriendly.com/faq#thirtyfive_plus

I think these are users writing comments in response to the recent Kris Letang contract.

How is term the most important? They have 3 more years of Sid and then it's a rough looking rebuild. Term is irrelevant. Getting Letang at 6mil is a huge W.

The way I see it, the Pens only want to be competitive for 3 more years (until Crosby’s contract is up and he’s 37). So as long as this contract is good value for like 2 years (debatable, but probably), they’re fine with it. What do they care if they need to buyout or LTIR for the last 3 years - they’ll be trying to win the draft lottery by then anyway.

comparing Vlasic to Letang is comical.

7.25 x 3 is what I would have given him

Yes he took less but for an extra 3 years

**** that

CapFriendly updated the contract on the player's page. NMC for first four years. Front-loaded with $8mil first two years. Then 1 yr @ $6.2 mil. Rest of contract $4.8 mil. So yeah, looks like if he retires early, it's all on the Pens.

Uuuuuhhhhhhhhh……?

These comments are exactly why I don’t use this site anymore besides the GM game. But I needed a good laugh and I definitely came to the right place.

This contract is absolutely brilliant. Do you really think for a second that Kris Letang given his injury history will play out the entirety of the contract? Absolutely not. He will be sent on LTIR like the Weber / hosss deals towards the end. The contract kept the AAV ridiculously low for the initial years of the deal, and in the “ugly” years of the contract, he will be on LTIR.

He'll be on LTIR and "retired" by year 3....

Exactly loool people struggle to understand that

I hope he's healthy for 6 more years.

That would be good for him, and a good laugh for the rest of us.

It's good and bad.

Good - It ensures that the Penguins will have a #1/#2 defensemen for cheap for the next few years while Crosby is still elite.

Bad - After Crosby is gone, Letang will still be there and won't be very good anymore.

Well he won’t be. A good laugh for the rest of us is watching the leafs crumble every year in the post season.

Seems like I'm very much in the minority but I think this is a good contract.

This AAV is a fair bit lower than Letang's initial position but get the extra term to compensate, but the thing is that term doesn't really hurt the Penguins whatsoever.
And for a guy I consider to currently be a top 15RHD in the league, this is a good AAV.

Pens are only gonna be competitive for as long as Crosby allows it. When he's no longer a top line center, then Pens can start tanking. I suspect this to happen around 2025-26.
Coincidentally, I think it's a decent bet that Letang doesn't have a shelf life longer than 2-3 years either. This is also around the time Guentzel's contract is up.
This means that whenever Letang starts to seriously decline, the Penguins are gonna have to tank anyway (and they're gonna have to tank haaaard for a good number of years to rebuild), and as such paying Letang 6.1m for an additional few years won't matter one bit.
But that lessened AAV may in the short term allow the Penguins some additional room to make maneuvers gearing up for 2 or three deeper runs in the playoffs.

I vote this a good signing.

This is blatant cap circumvention if this is the intention of the contract.

And what will the league do about it? What proof do they possibly have?

It’s pretty obvious the contract will end in LTIR, however, there is absolutely zero concrete evidence other than common sense.

A player with an injury history as long as Letang will never last till 41.

If Letang has to retire due to injury the league should have Pittsburgh keep the entire 6.1 million on their books instead of letting them use LITR. Especially considering it's a 35+ contract.

very bold of you to assume that the LTIR loophole won't be plugged up in the next CBA

And that’s your opinion. But as the rules stand right now, God forbid Letang has some sort of freak injury next season and is no longer physically able to play, they would be able to LTIR the deal.

Obviously I don’t anticipate him entering LTIR anytime soon. Potentially year 4/5/6 depending on many factors. Regardless, I just don’t see a world where we plays to 41.

+35. *thumbs up.

That’s for retirement not LTIR I thought. He won’t officially retire, just placed on LTIR indefinitely

Cheering for career ending injuries. That's a good look man. Real good look