So the big news this morning is that Ehlers and the Jets have agreed to a seven year deal worth 42 million for a AAV of 6 million dollars per year. Coming on the coattails of Jack Eichel's whopping 8 year 80 million deal last night Ehlers' contract looks like a good and fair deal for the Jets.
This summer and now fall have seen some massive dollar amounts spent on RFA players and there is one contract that seems to be the touchstone amongst them. The one that could be argued shapes all the others: Ryan Johansen.
This Johansen deal was the repercussion of the mad money spent this summer as on July 28th, 23 days after McDavid signed his blockbuster Johansen got some seriously mad money.
Here's how he compares on the HERO charts with Ehlers
Now he was no the only RFA to get big bucks as Draisaitl had to get more if you were paying Johansen 8 million per year. But what about Drouin? He took some risk in his deal when traded to the Canadiens and signing his next deal with an AAV of 5.5 million. Take a look at how former line mates compare to each other:
The point here is not to say other deals are back but that some how Kevin Cheveldayoff may have found his secret skill, a contract whisperer. Once the Eichel deal was announced, here's how he compares with Ehlers,
the immediate comparisons to the Scheifele deal of last year were noted. Man that kid took a discount or his agent just messed up in a big big way. However, Chevy has done it again with Ehlers on this deal. It pays him through most of his prime UFA years and at a reasonable rate given the cap projections. Consider this comparable in Nugent-Hopkins, a player who Edmonton locked up long term in the same fashion as players are now.
The Nuge has never had more than 56 points in a season. Ehlers had 64 last season, his second year in the league. Here's how they compare:
At any rate, goals per 60 or other, this deal, much like the Scheifele one is a huge win for Chevy and the Jets. There may be much to question and criticize with the GM but locking up his key players to favourable deals is not one of them.
Tonight the Jets and Maple Leafs kick off the season here at the Bell MTS Centre. It's an unusual match-up aside from the obvious showdown between 2016 top draft picks of Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine.
The lines for the Jets tonight look to be this:
Perreault Scheifele Wheeler Ehlers Little Laine Matthias Lowry Armia Dano Copp Tanev
Petan
Morrissey Trouba Enstrom Byfgulien Kulikov Myers
Poolman Chiarot
That is you Jets team tonight and it's a slightly curious top line but one that might be designed to match up with Toronto's big guns in particular Matthews. The logic here would be that while Scheifele's game still needs to get better in his own end, both Wheeler and Perreault are quite solid and could help weather the onslaught from the Leafs.
The Leafs come in with a much higher level of expectations than the Jets. The former, having made the playoffs for the first time since 2013 this past spring, have added talent have caps space and a ton of depth in the organization. Simply put many of the pundits and observers feel the Leafs are in a position to take a major step forward this year. Comparatively the Jets have a fan base and pundits who are cautiously optimistic about the chances of making the post season. The Leafs, with their roster and fans absolutely expect to be there.
A lot of things when wrong for both the Jets and Leafs last year and that revolves around shooting percentage. Does anyone think both Scheifele and Laine can maintain their torrid rates from last season? What about goaltending, will the Jets be as bad as they have the previous six years between the pipes? Will Andersen maintain his pace of play too, it seems more than likely he will given his history.
The difference between these two team is not that they come from building through the draft and trying to have deep organizations to draw talent from when needed. That's obvious but it's amazing that since the meltdown of the 2013 post season the Leafs have been able to do such an incredible swing to the positive, even away from winning Matthews. There's reason for them to have the expectations on them that they do but tonight gives the Jets a chance to say they should too, now will they?