This is rough…

Good contract, Athanasiou will be a solid 2nd liner for Chicago and that seems like the going rate for low end 2nd liners

"solid" is a way to put it. Dudes a bad middle 6 forward. No idea why Chicago gave him 2 years

Or he's going to be the guy who screws up so bad Bedard will want to leave after his ELC is done.

Exactly where I had him at. He's underrated in my opinion. Like him alot for his speed. The dude had 40 points this season so solid on his part. Well deserved and a good fit in Chicago. Him and Bedard would be a speedy line.

I'd say its because they know they won't be competing for a cup in 2 years so may as well pay the man and helps them stay up to cap floor. Then when his contract is up, I'd expect Bedard to be in his prime and the team starts to contend a bit.

This has more to do with Chicago than the FA market imo.

Either people don’t understand facts or choose to ignore them because they simply hate the Hawks. I’m choosing the latter for most people here.

1) he’s a 20 goal scorer in a top 6 role. Proved it last year. Is he top 6 in Vegas or Colorado? No. But 6 guys x 32 teams is 192 players are “top 6”. He’s in the top 192 even if he ranks 192/192.
2) He’s fast and Davidson loves guys who are fast.
3) he’s a great locker room guy
4) Hawks are going to be bad so you do have to overpay to keep guys.
5) you still have to field a team and with some experienced veterans. Last year Hawks had Kane Toews and Domi. Now they have none of them. In comes Bedard Korchinski and Reichel. AA is a good veteran presence.
6) Davidson is keeping all his contracts short for cap management reasons during this rebuild. He likely had to overpay to keep the term at 2 years.
7) AA is the ONLY forward player (other than prospects on ELC) who has a contract beyond this season. He, Jones and Murphy are the only 3 players who have contracts for the 24-25 season. That’s on purpose.

Everyone needs to calm down. This is great for both sides. Hawks get a good guy who wants to be in Chicago, they know who they’re getting, great locker room guy, veteran, 20 goal scorer while AA gets a few more years of stability and cashes in.

Win for both sides. Everyone needs to chill.

This contract is an overpayment by about 2-2.5 mill, the only bright side is that it's only 2 years and not more

The only 2 teams that have him in the top 6 are: Chicago and Arizona... The teams in which he doen't make the top 9: Colorado, Dallas, Toronto, Vegas, Tampa, Carolina, Seattle, (you could argue) Edmonton, NJD, NYR and Boston...

He's not a guy that would would put in your top 6 on a competitive team and so him getting that kind of money is a crazy overpay

So what if it is? Hawks aren’t a competitive team so your argument about “you wouldn’t put him in your top 6” is moot. Hawks are last in league in salary and need to hit the floor. What is the problem here?

What's the mentality you set for Bedard? "We want overpaid players here" isn't good... You also need to surround Bedard with guys that can play so he doesn't get constantly targeted by other goons

The mentality is you’re in year 2 of 4/5 in a rebuild. Hawks aren’t going out and signing big free agents just because they have Bedard. They’re going to bring up their prospects in Reichel, Korchinski, Vlasic and give them all ice time and experience. In a few more years when guys like Del Maestro, Allan, and Nazar and their likely top 5 pick in 2024 are in the roster then they’ll go out and get a big fish or two.

I didn't say good players, not pay a 3rd liner 1rst line money and give Bedard enough talent where he doesn't feel like Eichel did in Buffalo

If he was anywhere but Chicago he wouldn't be earning this kind of money. Dude is there just to soak up ice time so all the 18 year olds aren't overexposed.

Nope. There are plenty of teams that are deep enough to have 3rd liners better than this guy.



No. If you are going to be bad, you either sign people long-term so they will still be there after the rebuild, or you sign new players for minimum wage and take on expensive contracts while piling up the draft picks / prospects.

This is the worst of both worlds.

Ducks?

Calling 4.25m/yr 1st line money is laughable. He'd be the 5th or 6th highest paid forward on most teams current rosters. It's a little bit of an overpay for a team who will still have some of the most cap space at the start of the season and likely want a cushion above the cap floor to have flexibility for in season moves.

You can weaponize that cap space. Overpaying is bad, no matter where you are in the standings or how much cap space you have.

Zegras, Mctavish, Terry, Fantilli, Comtois, Henrique, Strome, Vatrano

And teams have defensemen and goalies that they pay as well... Ant would be with Lekhonen level money who is, guess what, on the 1st line

What do defenseman and goalies have to do with this? There were 150+ forwards with a cap hit higher than 4.25m last season, there's not 150 1st liners

Didn't see forward in the quote and thought you just said 5 or 6th highest paid player... There are 96 1st line players in the NHL, add the overpaid players (Drouin, Dvorak, Carter, granlund etc.) and you should get to 148, (Ant is tied for the 148th highest Paid player)

So you want a team full of cap dumps and Bedard and Jones? idk why you're so upset about the Hawks overpaying someone by $1M. Focus on your own directionless disaster of a franchise.

I'm not sure he earned a raise, but I think he wanted term and he did earn that. But the hawks would rather pay 8.5m for 2 years than 9m for 3 years. Kind of a win win for player and organization. Plus, AA should get TONS of icetime again and be able to prove himself for his next contract. If he finished even 10% more breakaways he would have been a 30g player.