You just argued against every trade like the Meier trade ever.

Mcdavid is one of the best players ever. You didn't have to trade Hughes, Hughes, hischier or Bratt.

It's no brainer!

Dawson mercer is fine, you claim he's worth 3 firsts and then say he's only worth 4 million a year.

Just mind boggling though process

Nemec is currently playing top line minutes, his analytics are fantastic and his counting stats are fantastic. If you don't think hes a top 4 D you're not worth talking to

Palat-Nico-Bratt have been among the best lines in hockey.
Jack loves playing with Haula.

The RFA system is built to devalue players and help teams save money.

As a 1st time RFA with no arbitration rights, 4x4 would be more than reasonable to walk him straight to UFA. Again I can go up to 4x5 if you want but that's the reality of bridge deals in the NHL.

If mercer today hit the UFA market, things would be a lot different.

You see what teams pay for guys in their 30s? If he could be a UFA I'd be shocked if Mercer got less than 8 million dollars a year from a team on a 7 year deal from age 22-29 right through his prime.

Don't believe me, go look at what Elias Lindholm is gonna get this offseason and tell me if you'd rather have him from age 30-38, or mercer from age 22-30

If 19 year old Nemec hit UFA today he'd fetch 10+ AAV in an instant for his age 19-26 years

The Meier trade after considering retention and the johnsson dump was about

71 mill for 9 years. Or about 7.9 mill AAV. To get a comparable UFA in JG it cost Columbus 9.75 mill AAV

That's about 15 mill in savings.
NJD paid a 1st, 2nd, prospect who I'd value at or below a 1st, Zetterlund and Okhotiuk

Overall I'd say there's 3 1sts of value there, checks out at a 1st=5 mill

Well you would be surprised then. No one is offering them anything close to those deals. Nemec is not worth more than Makar he isn't even half of the player. and Mercer is around 3-4 Mil player. signing him to 8mil would instantly be one of the worst contracts in the league. if thats the case your saying mercer is just as good as hughes, better than Bratt, and hischier. and almost as good as Stamkos, Zibanejad, Jason Robertsson, and Tage Thompson. and stop calling him a top 6 when he's isnt even in ur top 6.

also for perspective, your saying Nemec is more valuable than Makar, Fox, Hedman, Josi, Morrisey, and Theodore. you seriously value your players too highly. come here saying a 19 yr rookie with 31 games of experience is one of the best D in the league. you need to humble yourself

Honestly I'd much rather have an establish player like Lindholm over mercer. More mature, better defensively, and better production and a little note, teams pay older players that much and can see if their reliable. also I could probably name like 10 d and/or forward players/prospects that I would much rather have other these two

Every single one of the players you mentioned signed their deal as an RFA except hedman and Josi, both of whom took discounts to stay with their teams.

You seem to lack insight into what it costs to bring a new UFA into your team (not retain an existing player), the concept of RFA in general, the concept of player development, the concept of inflation, and just general knowledge.

NHL deals are more than 1 year long you know that right?

Here are some recent UFA dmen who went to new teams and what they got:
Alex Pietrangelo: 10.8% of cap from ages 30-37
Dougie Hamilton: 11.4% of cap from ages 28-34
Seth Jones: 11.66% of cap from ages 28-35

on 10 mill AAV for Nemec that would be 11.4% of the cap for ages 19-27.

I would rather have Nemec from age 19-27 than any of those guys over the age ranges they were signed at.

Sanderson and Power got 8+ mill with 4 years of RFA control left.

In terms of forwards an 8 mill deal for Mercer would be
9.1% of the cap from ages 22-30

The caliber of player you can bring in at that cost is:
Alex Killorn from age 33-37 for 7.5% of the cap
JVR from ages 29-33 for 8.81% of the cap
Nazem Kadri from ages 31-38 for 8.5% of the cap.

Any rebuilding team would jump at the chance to offer these contracts and get these players for the majority of their primes.

I'm sure you would, because it's apparent you can't think about things with any kind of foresight.

Call me when lindholm is 35, washed up, and you still have 3 more years left at 9 million dollars, and mercer is 27 and right in his prime.

Surely expensive old players on big contract don't turn into disasters?

Here is a list of 35+ guys making 7+ million

Carey Price
Sergei Bobrovsky
Kopitar
Jamie Benn
Alexander ovechkin
Backstrom
Burns
Webber
Vlasic
Crosby

The Sabres would like to stay away from Foote due to the ongoing criminal investigation.

Wow that is a big increase and Jones is also well known as one of the worst contracts in the league. Unless Hamilton is playing like last year every single year I would say he is also overpaid. Pietro is the only one that is actually reasonable and is still good. You attack my knowledge when you literally think Nemec is worth 10 and Mercer is worth 8.

and Sanderson and Power are WAYYYYYYYY better than Nemec.

Not sure Lindholm is going to get 9 and ain't no way you listed Kopitar and Crosby as washed up. Bobrovskiy is honestly having a good year but was seen as a horrible overpay. Burns is also having a good season at his age. and Ovechkin can bounce back and knowing him he probably will. Price, backstrom and webber don't even play in the league anymore and even when they did both price and webber were seen as some of the best in their position until they retired.

And to let you know RFAs dont make players take less money bro. if makar was offered like 6 Mil he could just demanded a trade. he's paid 9.5 cuz literally the best and proved it. Mercer is still young. if he can replicate his first 2 seasons on the open market he would be worth around 4-5m mil.

You can't use bad signings as a justification for Nemec's value. especially since he's only been in the league for like 31 games. you sign that 10 mil deal for nemec it's a loosing game

I just listed every player who met the qualifications of being 35 or older and making 7 mill+. I didn’t say they were all washed up

“Seen as a horrible overpay”

Again, it seems like you once again just don’t know what it costs to bring in a top flight UFA from another team.

Since you don’t have to trade assets or use a draft pick to acquire a player, it costs more in MONEY.

The guys I listed as comparables were simply the guys who went to new teams as UFAs. You can hate it if you want but that’s what it costs to get a top flight UFA to come to your team.

Tavares, gaudreau, Panarin, Bobrovsky, Pietrangelo, Hamilton. That’s what it costs.

Makar if he wasn’t an RFA would have made a ****ton more than 9.5 million.

RFAs cost less than UFAs to get the same quality player. This is an indisputable fact.

4-5 mill on the UFA market gets you very little. If Mercer was 30 years old and done developing.

But it seems to be a pattern that you don’t understand the concept of primes, development, and aging.

You hate the contracts because you compare them to RFAs and guys who take discounts to stay with their current team.

Nemec is levels ahead of where Sanderson and Power were at this age

No you just overvalue your players it's honestly crazyyyyy how much you do that. a 50 pt player is not a 8 Mil player. and I guaranteed your wrong about Nemec. he most likely won't be as good as them.

and yet again he isn't a 1st line D man. he's literally only there cuz Hamilton is out. and once again, you are giving so much value to a guy who has only played 31 games in the NHL. your not even being reasonable on him and mercer. you think a 19 yr old is like the best D in the world when he's not. teams pay UFAs what they think their worth and sometimes they are off which results in the fews guys you mentions.

your neglecting to mention good UFAs actually worth their contracts or better then what they paid.

FWD:
- Duchene
- Danault
- Zuccarello
- Giroux
- Trocheck
- Hyman
- Evander Kane
- Patrick Kane
- Marchment
- Burakovsky
- Verhaeghe
- O'Reilly
- Vatrano
Now I specifically brought these guys up because they are either on par with Mercer or just straight up better.

DEF
- Tanev
- Graves
- Zub

you got to look for these contracts. it's harder to find D cuz not many good ones going free agency.

the only reason why players like power and sanderson get those contracts is because their team is pretty much putting a wager on that player being worth that contract in the future. they seen glimpses of them and liked it enough for them to hand these contracts out. Nemec has only played 31 games so no team will throw 10 mil on him because there's no guarantee. if they miss and Nemec doesn't become anything then they need to live w a waste of 10 mil.

If I'm given Nemec 10 mil he needs to prove he's worth it. he's 31 games into his career I'm sure he'll become something but no one can say he'll be one of the best D in the league by the end of that 10 mil.

Another factor is that Nemec would need to prove he is worth 10 mil of a teams cap. if Nemec would ask for 10 mil no team in the league would give him it. especially when there is multiple better more secure options.

And yet again just because a player is an RFA doesn't mean they can't leave. They can demand a trade or just refuse to sign with the team.

finally, you proved your whole point wrong bringing up Power and Sanderson. RFAs sign big deals like this all the time BECAUSE THEY ARE WORTH THE MONEY or the team simply believes they will be before the contract is up. bridge deals are normally signed when either a player believes they will be worth more in a few years or if they need to be for a teams cap. using this logic I should expect to see on the offseason for 8 mil but the absolute most he'll get is 6.

again stop using established and proven NHL veteran's contracts as "proof" that Nemec is worth 10 on the open market. he simply isn't even near that and you need to come back down to reality. using your logic, Danault should be worth 8, duchene is worth like 11 mil, and Hyman would be worth something like 13-15mil on the market.

Please do the league a favour and never become a GM. you would literally destroy a franchise with your horrible contracts.

now they all take discounts to stay with teams.... gotcha. Vets take discounts not young players. and usually a player will not take much of a discount from their actual worth

If you would take Tanev, Graves, and Zub over Nemec you need to give your head a shake.

Again, you do not seem to understand the distinction between RFA contracts, UFA contracts, and Player values. Since top flight superstars rarely reach UFA, you don't have an understanding of how much they make. (John Tavares, Artemi Panarin type contracts).

I am not suggesting NJD or any team offer nemec, an RFA, 10 million dollars.

NJD controls his rights and so will be able to have him on a discount because that's how RFAs work

I'm saying I'd rather have nemec at 10 million dollars for the next 8 years than the alternative being what you can buy in UFA

You think most UFA contracts are bad because you compare them to RFA contracts and trades, while ignoring that those players require a draft capital investment.

You again don't seem to understand player development.

Vatrano had significantly worse production than mercer and had by all accounts finished his development when he signed that deal.
O'Reilly again significantly worse production and looked to be on his way to the retirement home when he signed that deal
Kane had 1 hip, again looked on his way to the retirement home
Evander Kane isn't very good
The trocheck deal sucked for years before he finally got it together
Matt Duchene literally got bought out from his contract

Again, you look back at age, production, every factor at the time of these guys signing those contracts. I'd rather have 22 year old mercer than any of them.

"the only reason why players like power and sanderson get those contracts is because their team is pretty much putting a wager on that player being worth that contract in the future. they seen glimpses of them and liked it enough for them to hand these contracts out"

Those teams didn't just wager 8 mill AAV in cap space. They also gave up the opportunity cost they could have gotten by trading the 2.

Since whatever team acquiring nemec (would likely be a rebuilder like Chicago, Anaheim, CBJ, MTL, Buffalo) in this hypothetical UFA scenario would have to give up nothing in terms of opportunity cost or draft capital, they would pay more in salary.

Again, this happens every year in UFA where players go for much more money than they otherwise would

Josi took 11% of the cap. Not a big discount but a lot less than he would have gotten on the open market

Hedman took a massive discount compared to what he would have recieved on the open market.


UFA players will generally take somewhat less to stay with their current team, because A) they don't have to uproot their whole life, and B) assuming they extend before they actual hit free agency, they are ONLY negotiating with 1 team, and opt for security (to protect themselves in case they get hurt before reaching true UFA).

RFA players have that aspect too of security and not having to uproot their lives, but the main reason they get less is because they have very little leverage. Offer sheets are not a meaningful threat in the NHL and so players lose leverage of other bidders.

This is a basic concept I shouldn't have to explain.

But anyway, I'm done trying to explain these simple concepts of economics, value, and contracts to you.

Call me in 5 years when Nemec and Mercer are underpaid studs and you talk about a new set of young, quality NHLers (because Nemec and Mercer have shown they can play top 6 and top pairing at the NHL level) saying "they'll won't develop like that, I'd rather have *insert 29 year old guy who's gonna fall off in 2 years*"