After all the speculation about term and time and torn labrums, pen found paper this afternoon as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins agreed to a seven-year, $42 million contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers. In the end, any lingering concerns about Nugent-Hopkins’ left shoulder were put to rest by the team, which made a major long-term commitment to the 20-year-old center. His deal follows similar pacts made with Taylor Hall (seven years, $42 million) and Jordan Eberle (six years, $36 million) in August 2012, and solidifies the Oilers’ young core for nearly a decade to come.
In my mind, offering RNH a long-term deal was a no-brainer. He’s arguably the best center the team has had (Doug Weight included) since Mark Messier left town, and has shown enough only 102 games into his NHL career to justify the dollars. If you’re a big fan of cost efficiency and cap management, you have to love how the Oilers have set their own internal cap hit of $6 million for each of their big three forwards Eberle, Hall and RNH. From a team standpoint, the Hall deal already looks like a steal.
When you look at the big dollars teams have to dole out to attract free agents – David Clarkson’s seven-year, $36.75 million deal comes to mind, and he isn’t half the player RNH is – the Oilers are making out like bandits. Remember, this is a team that has consistently failed to attract free agent talent, and was routinely burned and spurned by free agents (anyone remember Michael Nylander?) before the rebuild began. When you have homegrown talent that wants to stay for the long haul, it would be Darwin Award-level stupid to reject those advances or offer up a bridge contract.
The one-for-all, all-for-one mantra of the young Oilers is apparent both on and off the ice with Nugent-Hopkins’ deal. Plus, it makes the negotiations very easy once extension talks begin for both Nail Yakupov and Justin Schultz. I’m not saying that either player will be worth a $6 million annual salary when that time comes, but the Oilers are guaranteed that they won’t have to pay either player any more than the $6 million being made by Hall, Eberle and RNH. It’s a genius move, saving the team dollars in the long run while preventing any messy contract negotiations.
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Quick Spills
-The Oilers ran roughshod over the Vancouver Canucks last night, attacking in waves with an aggressiveness that created a 9-0 shot advantage and 3-0 lead only eight minutes into the game. If that firewagon brand of hockey is going to be the norm in Edmonton this season sign me up.
-As an added bonus, the Oilers sent a strong message to Roberto Luongo and the Canucks, who project to be Edmonton’s primary competition for a playoff spot this season. There haven’t been many nights in the last decade when the Oilers could coast home after building a 4-0 lead over the Canucks.
-Everyone’s raving about the performance by Darnell Nurse last night. It was certainly his best showing of the preseason, as he displayed both the physicality, hockey sense and puck skills that made him such a highly-touted prospect. He won’t make the big club this season, but the Oilers appear to have something really good in Nurse.
-Jesse Joensuu was another player who popped off the screen last night with his speed and tenacity on the forecheck. His one-timer goal came at the end of an excellent shift, where he was buzzing around creating chances and disrupting the Canucks defense. He jumped to the top of the position-battle heap in my mind, and I’m anxious to see more of Jonesuu.
-So far, Ryan Smyth looks like a different player than the one we saw last season. Perhaps its just the fresh legs or being reinvigorated by playing alongside Hall and Eberle, but he was physical and strong on the puck last night, creating around the cage. Oiler fans will certainly welcome more of that from #94 this year.
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