I went through the entire league division by division to list the bad contracts each team has. It is only fair if I comb through once again to find all the good contracts each team has. Some things I will be looking at include the age of the player. Does this team have the player locked in for the prime years (24-26)? If not, does the term of the contract stay within a reasonable time frame for the player to be productive (different players are going to age better than others). What is the likelihood of the team predominately paying for past performance? What kind of contract are they on? I will not be including ELC deals on this for obvious reasons. Those contracts are artificially low and thus not eligible. These are just some of the things I’ll be looking at.
Today’s division is the Metropolitan Division
Carolina Hurricanes – Jaccob Slavin
The Carolina Hurricanes have a lot of good contracts, but ultimately I kept circling back to Jaccob Slavin. Slavin is a really good overall defenseman who is making 5.3M. He is currently in year two of a seven year deal and I think the Hurricanes are getting very good value for Slavin’s best years. He signed the deal at age 24 (he is 26 as of three days ago) and he should remain a very good player for the remaining five years of the deal.
Here was his sample from last year
Looks great for 5.3M
Columbus Blue Jackets – Seth Jones
What a great trade for the Blue Jackets. This isn’t a slight on Ryan Johansen, but Seth Jones is a player. Not only was the cost to acquire fair for the Blue Jackets their contract extension Jones accepted from the team is more than fair. Jones plays the big minutes and does a good job with them. He makes 5.4M to eat all those minutes and the Blue Jackets still have two years remaining on the deal. Jones is 25 years old so they are getting the very best years he has to offer. This has been a very good deal for Columbus from the original trade acquisition through his extension with the team.
New Jersey Devils - Nico Hischier
While I don’t think Hischier is the kind of player teams dream of when picking in the #1 slot I do think highly of him as a player. I like that the Devils got in front of an extension and locked him up with a healthy raise and for term. He’s a really good player. I think he’s the kind of player who can have an impact in the way Anze Kopitar does. Hischier is only 21 years old and betting on him to keep improving is a great bet. The first years of his 7.25M may seem steep, but by the end that cap hit will seems comically good for the Devils.
New York Islanders - Mathew Barzal?
I looked through the list of players on Cap Friendly and I didn’t see any contracts I liked. Players like Brock Nelson and Anders Lee are good player, but the team is going to pay drastically for past performance. Technically Mat Barzal has not signed his next deal yet, but no matter what they pay him his contract is going to make sense because he is young, he is incredibly talented, and they will be getting his best years.
New York Rangers - Mika Zibanejad
A lot of the attention in New York was on Artemi Panarin this year and rightfully so. He should probably win the Hart Trophy. However, Zibanejad had a monster season in his own right. He has always been talented and kind of flies under the radar at times, but it is tough to ignore scoring 41 goals in only 57 games(!) Last year he was a 30 goal scorer and the year before that was 27. He is a consistent goal scoring threat. Zibanejad makes 5.35M and will for the next two years. He’s 27 years old at the moment and I see no reason for caliber of play to drop significantly even if he cannot maintain his 19.7 shooting percentage of this year.
Philadelphia Flyers - Sean Couturier This is probably close to the best contract in the NHL. What a wonderful trajectory Couturier has in his career. He is one of the very best defensive players in the league and is offensively talented on top of it. He is now under regular consideration for the Selke Trophy and playing the tough minutes for the Flyers allowing some of the other players to breathe a little bit. His excellent play creates time and space for Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek which might not come as easy as it used to for those players. Here are his last two years
The Flyers get all this for only 4.33M and will continue to do so for the next two seasons. It is a complete steal.
Pittsburgh Penguins – Sidney Crosby
He has played below his market value for his entire career. He put up 102 points in his rookie season and hasn’t slowed down since. It probably would have been better for Crosby if he was born on December 31st rather than August 7th because his superstitious nature has him using his birthday as a cap hit number. He was the runner up for the Hart Trophy last year. He has 47 points in 41 games this year. He is still amazing. Sid still has five years left on his deal and I’m usually not a fan of paying a premium for players in their mid-thirties, but when I say that I’m not talking about Sidney Crosby. If you were to bet on certain players to age gracefully Crosby would certainly be one of those players.
Washington Capitals – Jakub Vrana
This was a hard team to pick a contract. The Capitals are all-in on the present and the deals they’ve struck recently with their key players has that in mind. Players like Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, and TJ Oshie are all going to get paid for past performance at the midway points of their current deals. It’s fine for now and I understand the reasoning. I just don’t view them as great contracts.
I don’t feel strongly about my selection here because Vrana and his 3.35M cap hit only have one season left, but it is tremendous value. Vrana was a key player when Washington made their successful run to the Stanley Cup. It took injuries for Barry Trotz to put him in the lineup and it was a good thing he did. The last two years he has done a great job of creating offense for the team. The majority of his point are at even-strength because as we know the spots on the Washington Capitals number one power play unit are spoken for. Vrana has 25 goals this year in 69 games with 22 of them coming during even-strength. He’s a terrific value for the Capitals for at least one more year.
Thanks for reading!