In minor Carolina Hurricanes news today, the Canes signed 2 depth defensemen with NHL experience to 2-way contracts to provide additional depth for 2013-14. Mark Flood is a familiar name who played with the Canes AHL affiliate a few years back before bouncing around. He is 27 years old and brings 39 games of NHL experience. Matt Corrente brings someone willing to drop the gloves if needed which is important when you have undersized skill players like Victor Rask and Ryan Murphy stepping up the AHL this year. He brings 34 games of NHL experience and a bunch of PIM.

But looping back around to the title of this blog, today Washington re-signed Karl Alzner for 4 years at $11.2M (so $2.8M/year). Alzner is a 2007 draftee with 3 full years plus 1 partial in the NHL. He has estabished himself as a very solid shutdown type top 4 defenseman. He is the third decent comparable for Justin Faulk to sign this summer.

Faulk is a little bit younger as a 2010 draftee and brings a little bit more offensively, but he will have 3 full years plus 1 partial of NHL experience come next summer and similarly will have proven he can handle a top 4 spot in the NHL. With Faulk signed for 2013-14 nothing has to happen until next summer. But with Faulk’s role on the team as a key part of the blue line going forward , a very solid 2012-13 campaign and the precedent set by re-upping Jeff Skinner 1 year early last summer, I think the timing is perfect for Rutherford to get Justin Faulk signed long-term on the heels of a pretty price-friendly benchmark.

Earlier this summer, we had 2 higher comparables sign:

--Roman Josi in Nashville signed for a long 7 years at $4M/year. Josi is a 2008 draftee coming off a great year that saw him successfully step into the first pairing with Shea Weber successfully filling the hole left by Ryan Suter’s departure.

--Slava Voynov in Los Angeles also re-upped following completion of his entry-level contract. He is coming off a solid year that saw him score at a 45-point pace (over 82 games) and perform impressively in a top 4 spot. He is a 2008 draftee like Josi. Voynov just signed for 6 years at $4.17M/year.

--There are 2 scary contracts out there. The first is the Oliver Ekman-Larsson contract for a whopping $5.5M/year for 6 years. I think that is a bit of an overpayment and only comes into play if Faulk waits until next summer to re-sign and blows the doors off it this season. The other not-yet-signed deal that could change things is Alex Pietrangelo’s deal which could come over the wire at any time. If that deal comes in at something crazy like $7M+/year, then just maybe Faulk’s agent holds his cards for now gambling to win a much bigger pot next summer.

If I were Canes GM Jim Rutherford, I would use the reasonable Alzner signing as my entry point to get Justin Faulk locked up long-term. The hope is that his $2.8M now makes something less than the $4M/year deals that Voynov and Josi received still a reasonable offer. 5 years at $3.6M per year would be fair for both sides, at least a small discount to the max number right now and would eliminate potential offer sheet issues next summer.

My 3 entries in the unofficial Justin Faulk contract pools are July 18 (Date), 5 years (length) and $3.8M (salary per year), so that is 5 years for $19M. Enter in the comments or on Twitter. The winner gets...errrr...nothing.

Get ‘er done JR!

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Go Canes!

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