Larsson was scheduled for an arbitration hearing on Wednesday but that will no longer be necessary as he put pen to paper on a six-year contract worth an annual average of $4.16 million per season.
I have some thoughts:
- This was Ray Shero's first big negotiation as GM of the Devils and I think he did very well here. Larsson is just 22 years old and he hasn't entered his prime yet. Most players start to decline - at least a little bit - in their late 20's but it's entirely possible the Devils just signed Larsson for the entirety of his prime for just over $4 million per season.
- Larsson has never put up big point totals because for most of his career he's been benched whenever he made a mistake and he has very rarely been given any power play time. In saying that he does have some offense to his game and his rate stats back that up.
From 2012-2015 Larsson ranks 20th among 190 blue liners (minimum 1,500 minutes) in primary assists per 60 minutes of 5 vs 5 play. That ranks Larsson ahead of the likes of Drew Doughty, Brent Seabrook, Keith Yandle, Zdeno Chara, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Kevin Shattenkirk, among many others.
- If you sort by 5 vs 5 points per 60 minutes played rather than primary assists Larsson isn't ranked as high (53rd of 190) but is still well above average.
Larsson's .82 points per 60 minutes of full strength ranks ahead of Christian Ehrhoff, Tobias Enstrom, Zdeno Chara, Drew Doughty and Seth Jones, among others. Again Larsson is keeping good company and he has not even hit his prime yet.
- Larsson is only 22 so theoretically he's still going to get better. Factor in his expected improvements and add the system John Hynes is implementing - one that allows defensemen to join the rush to help create offense - and I think we'll see his point totals climb in the coming years.
- On top of the production Larsson has also shown the ability to log big minutes and hold his own against top competition. He played 22-24 minutes on a nightly basis in the latter half of last season and didn't look at all out of place while doing so.
- There are 30 teams in the NHL. There are 65 defensemen carrying a cap hit larger than Adam Larsson next season so slightly more than two defensemen per team will make more. That means Larsson is, in theory, being paid like a No. 3 blue liner. It's likely Larsson develops into a top-pairing guy but even if he's never more than a 2nd pairing defenseman the Devils still won't be overpaying Larsson. There's potential for this contract to look very good and under almost no circumstance will it look bad.
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