Follow @james_tanner123 Not much going on in the world of the Coyotes, but there was some interesting NHL news this week. Let's check it out.
David Krejci
The Bruins signed centre David Krejci to a six year, $7.35 million dollar contract extension.The deal, which kicks in next season, will take Krejci, currently 28, into his age 35 season. The contract also includes a no-movement clause that runs from now until the second last year of the contract.
Not bad for a guy who was the 63rd pick, and who, by NHL standards, is somewhat small at 6' 180.
There are quite a few different ways to look at this contract, and I guess your perspective will determine if you think it's a good deal for the Bruins or not, but two things cannot be debated: 1. David Krejci is a great hockey player, and 2. The cap hit on the contract is in line with what similar players have been getting.
You can look at this contract and say it's too much for a centre who has never scored at a point per game pace during in his entire career. But then Krejci is a very strong two-way player, so how much value you place on that facet of the game compared to offense will also effect how you view the deal.
There is also his age to consider. Even if we grant that this is a good deal now, by the time the deal is half over, Krecji will be 32 and unless you're Selanne or Chelios it's at least a strong possibility you're declining by 32 as compared to 28.
At the same time, the Bruins have a great team right now and given the ages of their players, should maintain their "window" for a few years, which means it's more than reasonable for them to agree to overpay for his declining years if they can keep him while the figurative window is open.
As for comparables, Stastny's deal is shorter, and Krejci's cap hit is just slightly higher. I would rank Krejci as just slightly better than Stastny, so that seems fair. (To be fair to Stastny, I have seen Krejci play way more often.) On the other hand, Sidney Crosby makes $12 million dollars this year ($8.7 cap hit) and even though that'd be slightly higher if signed today, I think that Krejci is worth probably 7/12ths of a Crosby.
The deal, I think, is a good one for the Bruins. Ultimately, that's the going price for a player like him and if he'd waited until next summer certainly someone would have gotten silly and threw nine mill at him. It is worth pointing out though that players aren't really leaving money on the table when they do this. Sure, he'd get more next year, but when you have millions of dollars already, is it really worth risking everything for an extra 2 or 3 million? "Leaving money on the table" really protects a player in case of injury, so it's not like the player is doing the team a favor by signing early.
Furthermore, the Bruins have a chance to win now, and if the cost for doing that is a bunch of bad deals five or seven years from now, then that's a cheap price to pay because if you aren't willing to overpay a player for his 32 and over seasons, he probably doesn't want to give you the prime 28-32 years anyways. The only other option would be a shorter term with more money, unlike the years you're overpaying for, this actually hurts your ability to win now - and any team with Krejci and Bergeron up the middle for 2/3s of every game is going to have a chance to win.
It seems obvious to me that this is a win-win contract for both the player and the team.
Other NHL News
Besides Krejci, other NHL news was hard to come by this week. Sydney Crosby was reported to be arrested in Ottawa, but then it turned out that he was actually in Colorado at time. This shouldn't even be news - people make mistakes and the paper retracted their story - but there was literally nothing going on, hockey wise at least.
The Avalanche signed Tyson Barrie to a reasonable 2 year deal. I'd take Barrie over Niskanen and his contract, so can't complain about this one, really.
The Flyers signed Zack Rinaldo to an extension too. He's a good waiver wire grab for slow nights if you want to grab some PIMs,so that's the only reason to really discuss this.
Slow week.
Can't wait for preseason.
Oh yeah, Brodeur might sign in Montreal, I guess, but, really, who cares? If I was the Canadiens I wouldn't waste one dollar over the league minimum to pay a guy to back up Price for nine games - Not when I could just sign someone in the case of injury and/or recall Tokarski.
Thanks for Reading.