Ok. I just thought it was too much for a guy who was a weak link for them against Florida. Yeah he can score but if he struggles defensively and loses his breakout ability when punished. Just based on what I saw in the finals. It’s a lot of money.
Seems to be a growing trend even without the threat of a work stoppage. I guess guys are getting more professional investment advice these days, because you have a lot more flexibility with the lump sum than you do with monthly payroll checks.
It’s inevitable given his disappearance in playoff games. He’s too easy to get off his game and is not mean enough with a stick (see Joni Pitkanen) or as physical as Luke Schenn. At that price, if he can’t produce and can’t change a game with his play, well…
Not really. They've got Luke Hughes in his first RFA window now, with $6+ million available. Then Nemec will be in the last year of his ELC and they'll have to make a decision on Markstrom after this season. Otherwise their guys are pretty well locked up. But throwing $9 million at a guy who's producing value in the $6-7 million range is a bad investment that's looking to get worse while he ages.
They really are in pretty good cap shape. They have Hischier in 2027-28 but most of the other guys coming up that year probably won’t be extended. But for all the problems trading Hamilton, his contract is buyout proof too. They missed this window and he has a $10.5 million signing bonus this year. If they buy him out after next season, he’ll actually cost them an extra $40k because he has a $7.4 million signing bonus due. They’d save $4.2 million in 2027-28 but he’d cost a little over $1 million in the last 2 years of the buyout period.
Hindsight is fun, isn't it? That said, I have zero doubts that Dougie would have been better here than he's been in NJ. The system fit him better and you simply cannot over-state the impact of playing next to Slavin.
Yeah. I think Fitzgerald has done a really good job as GM in Jersey. He seemed like a stretch when he took over from Shero, but he's done solid work building a roster and not getting all bunched up with bad contracts. That Hamilton deal was one they felt they had to make to get the program jump started and it mostly worked. It would have worked a lot better if he could have stayed healthy, but that's a roll of the dice. The structure of the contract was the price of admission to even think about getting the player and it sucks.
I mean, there were people who said that, yes. Stupid people.
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