Here is a graph of all of the players who have logged at least two-hundred even-strength minutes since the 2011-2012 season, scattered by their point/60 and ability to generate individual shot-attempts.
I've colored some comparables around 25 year-old Mark Borowiecki, who the Ottawa Senators decided to give a
three-year extension to on Monday morning. The blue players are still in the league, the majority of those basically scraping by; the red players are either out of the league or AHL projections for 2014-2015.
I don't think I need to elaborate on this. As an aside, of the blue comparables, I think one, maybe two had multi-year deals. Max.
If there's a question of whether or not a player is good enough to compete in the National Hockey League, the answer should never be 'let's find out by first giving him a three-year extension'.
The troubling part is there's no argument to be made about locking up Borowiecki right now. He was under contract. He was RFA or G6 UFA bound. He's a defensive defenseman with basically zero offensive output projection, which means the 'risk' of letting him play another season on his current deal and hoping he didn't score a ton of points was non-existent. Other than maybe Chris Phillips, he's not better than any defenseman on the current roster. And again, in what universe is a defensive defenseman with a near-zero point threshold jamming up his team in negotiations? There are virtually no comparables to point to, even if you
wanted to consider this a possible threat.
Good on Borowiecki to get paid, but the extension is incomprehensible, especially on the heels of signing Eric Gryba and Chris Phillips in the last few months.
--
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»