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Around the League 2019-2023 Edition

LeafGm

LeafGm

Well-known member
Well, finally some movement on the RFA front.

Columbus has signed Zach Werenski to a 3 year/$15M deal.
 
LeafGm said:
Well, finally some movement on the RFA front.

Columbus has signed Zach Werenski to a 3 year/$15M deal.
Click to expand...

That's a great deal for Columbus. Great cap hit and leaves them with 1 yr of control left as a RFA when it expires.
 

wait...what? Zacha was always a reach of a top 10 pick that has kind of blown up on Jersey, but this is nightmare territory. Basically lighting a top 10 pick on fire.
 
MindzEye said:
wait...what? Zacha was always a reach of a top 10 pick that has kind of blown up on Jersey, but this is nightmare territory. Basically lighting a top 10 pick on fire.
Click to expand...

Was Lou still around at their draft that year? Not a good look on his scouting dept., in any event.
 
MindzEye said:
That's a great deal for Columbus. Great cap hit and leaves them with 1 yr of control left as a RFA when it expires.
Click to expand...


The one sweetener for Werenski is that the final year of the deal is a $7M salary. So for him, the Jackets will at least have to qualify him at a higher number when the deal's over. Still, yeah, it's a great deal for Columbus.

BeLeafer said:
Was Lou still around at their draft that year? Not a good look on his scouting dept., in any event.
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Yep, I believe that was Lou's last first round pick as the GM in New Jersey.

Managed to pick the only bust in what, in retrospect, was a studly top-10 of historic proportions in the NHL draft:

  1. McDavid
  2. Eichel
  3. Strome
  4. Marner
  5. Hanifin
  6. Zacha
  7. Provorov
  8. Werenski
  9. Meier
  10. Rantanen
 
werenski is an interesting comp to Marner - really good, but perhaps boosted early by softish competition, and then more recently by playing with a stud partner.
 
That deal is kinda normal. Probably a slight inflation for historical post-ELCs but not the astronomical upswing some think is in the offing.
 
Interesting tidbit, if true.

Looks like the Canadiens were in on Jake Gardiner after all, and offered him about $1.2M more per season than he got from Carolina:


 
Can't really find anything else confirming that Zacha has actually signed. Did see a rant by Shero saying he didn't care if Zacha signed away, but that was it. Waded into the cesspool that is HF boards and the thread on it there said it wasn't the case.

Still, like Mindz said earlier, kind of a reach of a pick to begin with. He did show signs last year of coming around and there was speculation that he could possibly slot in on Hughes wing this year to help with some of the defensive burden this year, but man, he has been a let down overall since he was drafted.
 
He's only a let-down because of where old-school Lou and his scouting staff stupidly decided to pick him.

Zacha's sort of in the same boat as Lawson Crouse in that draft. People were willing to overlook his clear lack of offensive production in his draft year because he was a toolsy player who, to steal a Mike Babcock line, was 6'4" all day.
 
Not just 6'4" but a 6'4 center. Teams swing on centers all the time. And in fairness he is an ok player.

But that draft was just stacked, the next 4 picks are all legit stars., and they ended up with two high end centers in the next couple drafts anyway with Hughes and Hischer. Perfect example of why you go BPA over need.
 
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