Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

What does Oliver Bjorkstrand’s next contract look like?

June 14, 2018, 5:10 PM ET [3 Comments]
Paul Berthelot
Columbus Blue Jackets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Jackets are going to have a busy off-season. They are one year out from the core of their team, Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovksy and Zach Werenski, needing new contracts. All three, will certainly be looking for big deals. That should be a big part of the off-season, talking to those players and seeing where they are at.

As far as players that need to be re-signed this season, the Jackets have three key restricted free agents in Oliver Bjorkstrand, Boone Jenner and Ryan Murray and a key unrestricted free agent in Ian Cole.

Today we are going to look at Bjorkstrand and get a feel for what type of contract he could be looking at.

As a skilled winger the absolute most he could be looking at is six million. That’s what Taylor Hall, Artemi Panarin, Nik Ehlers, Jordan Eberle, Filip Forsberg and Brandon Saad all got. While Bjorkstrand is a nice player, coming off a solid 40 point season. He is not that calibre of player and not be getting anywhere near that kind of money.

For the Jackets the comp should start with Josh Anderson. Anderson was in the same position last season and after a lengthy holdout signed for $1.85M per over three years. Bjorkstrand is a much more established NHL player at this stage of his career than Anderson was. He was a more regarded prospect and more scoring upside than Anderson did. That is going to push Bjorkstrand to at least $2M, in my opinion.

Using CapFriendly’s contract comparable tool, setting the parameters to match Bjorkstrand (RFA, right winger, 23 years old, 120 career NHL games played with 61 career points) and setting the average annual value of the deal to two million it gives a list of players that are very comparable to Bjorkstrand.

This gives us names like Vlad Namestnikov, who had 51 career points at the time of his signing and was coming off a 35 point season. He also had prospect pedigree as a first round pick. He signed for two years at $1.937, 500 per. You also have Mike Hoffan, Andrew Shaw, Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino, and Connor Brown, players who like Bjorkstrand were all later round picks. Like Bjorkstrand these players worked their way into prospect status and at the time of signing their deals, you knew they had potential but they hadn’t quite shown it to full effect in the NHL.

Bjorkstrand has the upside of a Hoffman, a good shooter who can score 25+ goals and 50+ points. There is still risk however that he doesn’t become that which is why the AAV is kept down.

Matt Cane, editor at Hockey Graphs, did free agent contract predictions and he came up with two years at just a shade over $2.0M for Bjorkstrand.




We have seen the way the Jackets negotiate in the past; they are tough on their RFA’s. I expect them to get a third year, at roughly the money Cane has projected. That’s a deal that is team friendly but it works for both sides. If Bjorkstrand never reaches his potential he has guaranteed money. If he does the team got a steal of a deal and Bjorkstrand will cash in on his next contract.

You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot
Join the Discussion: » 3 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Paul Berthelot
» Blue Jackets extend John Tortorella
» Blue Jackets extend Hockey Operations Staff
» Thoughts on the Blue Jackets Traverse City roster
» How the Blue Jackets can get more national coverage
» Just how bad is the Blue Jackets prospect system?