Draisatl singed a eight year deal for 8.5 years when he was 19…best signing ever …people complained about it at first but now we know he’s worth every Penney of it…he’s still an oiler for three more years !

The Bergeron 8-year deal was one of the best contracts in the league

Rick Dipietro hands down provided the best value per dollar, he's an UFA I'm surprised he hasn't been re-upped

Parise and Suters 13 year contracts are killing the Wild right now. They just had to let Fiala go because of cap space. He’s a 25 year old who just broke out and had an amazing season, but the Wild have the dead space from Parise and Suter. It really sucks. 14 mil of dead space.

Kadri will turn 32 at the start on the season .... 7 years..... Flames going to regret it in 3 years :(

Ovechkin is the only player to have earned every dollar he has signed for since his draft. His career proves beyond a doubt that he is the GOAT for goal scorers. With 2 lockouts and a Pandemic to shorten his playing time. Most players would have slowed down, and coasted after awhile. I am not saying others aren't in his class, but he was the only long-term contract that proved the owner is a genius.

It's different in the NBA because the players have more power in that league. They can only sign for a max of 5 years. They do get more money and players want the ability to move teams if a situation isn't working out for them.

Johan Franzen signed an 11 year $43M deal in Detroit. He lasted 6 years until PCS put him down for good.

The Karlsson jersey is very fitting for this video 😂

I didn't see Kyle Okposo's contract(7 years) listed. That one hurts. And I knew it was going to hurt the moment the Sabres signed him. However, they were in a really bad situation that they created. They had a roster devoid of scorers and he was the only attainable free agent. They overpaid because they had to and got punished, harshly. Of course, injuries are a part of it with his MANY concussions. And recently he's played well, as a 4th line player. Problem is, he was signed to be a 1st line player. Very likable guy, shame to have to list his contract as a mistake. Mistake it was, though.

Ottawa has been doing a really good job managing their young players and getting good term and cap hit. Tkachuk, Norris. Doing that allows them to keep the band together when Stutzle and Batherson are up. Almost forgot to mention Chabot.

Zetterberg's deal was one of the first deals with that back diving salary. Then teams saw that and took it to the next level.

Hey THG, I wonder how many NHL GM's offer these long contracts to players knowing that in 7,8 or 10 years from now that they will no longer be with the team, especially if that particular GM has less than 3 or 4 years left on his own contract... "Let the next guy deal with the salary cap issue" type of attitude.

You missed Drai...back when he signed they said it is too much...turned out to be a steel

Paul Holmgren tries to sign Weber with a ridiculously long contract then instead signs Bryzgalov with the worst contract to ever happen in the NHL. How that guy is still in management is insane

As a Devil's fan, that thumbnail brings back so much pain lol

Jamie Benn won the scoring title in one of the NHL’s lowest scoring seasons in years… idk why anyone is surprised

I think JT Millers contract will be alright. With the salary cap going up it shouldn't be that cumbersome in the end if the Canucks are smart. What I like about JT is he is also a good defensive forward so even if the scoring slows in his mid-30's the Canucks should still have a good shutdown center.

Best value contract: Nathan Mackinnon. 7 Year $44.1M with a $6.3M AAV. I wonder what his new contract will be when he becomes a UFA after this upcoming season

GMs signing long term contracts to 28+ players are unlikely to survive the end of those contracts. The owners need to control them.

It just goes to show, you don't always know how these contracts are going to play out. Excellent video Shannon, great information!

Laughs in Doug Wilson.

Great content as always. Really love the details you put in to this hard work. Thanks!

The way Vancouver structured Miller’s contract makes actually really good. If he’s bad by year 5, they can buy it out and save cap, and will have an increased cap at that stage.

WE'RE NUMBER 1! WE'RE NUMBER 1! WE'RE NUMBER 1! Honestly, I'd have worn a Vlasic jersey over Karlsson. Karlsson's contract might be a bigger number, but Vlasic's contract is worse in terms of value. Karlsson's been playing at a value of around $4M per season under his contract value. On the other hand, Vlasic would be unlikely to be offered a league minimum deal if he was a UFA, so he's more like $7M per season under his contract value. This is based on The Athletic's contract valuations, stats, and the eye test.

The game has passed J. Carlson on the defensive side. So many goals given up where he was laying flat on the ice and gets deked around. Still good on offensive side.

coming from a sharks fan, i don’t think you could’ve worn a better jersey

How did I know he would be in Sharks gear

Completely off the rails and I love all of it !

Christian Ehrhoff‘s deal with Buffalo comes into my mind… :D

That's a madness board if I've seen one

Good explanation! Also, unless I missed something, it seems odd Tom Wilson didn’t get an 8 year contract with the Caps off the bat

beautiful black armor jersey youre sporting

I feel you missed Draistal and his 8 year contract. Or did i missed something?

FANTASTIC topic.

As a Wings fan that subtle jab at Evgeny Svechnikov hurts still, kid has been dealing with the injury bug since his first pro season and it sucks because he in his mind he knows what he wants to do but his body just can't do it.

I thought that the most the cap could go up per season (as of right now) was 1 mil, an extra 3-4 mil is not going to make a huge difference especially if guys that are signed to these long term deals regress

Well Ovi's 13 year monster of a deal went by really well. Dude's the GOAT.

I've never liked the plus 5 year deals as they seem to hurt both player and team long term if they don't age well or circumstances change. Luongo in Vancouver being the obvious one. The canucks didn't want him, he wanted out yet in the end they lost Schneider.

You missed Joel Eriksson Ek’s 8 year 42 million dollar deal.

I am hopping the Filip one ages the best and he reaches the level we expect he can.

If you want to look at the Miller contract specifically, the problem isn't just that he's already 29, it's that he is NOT an 8 million dollar player. He is nowhere near point per game in his career. Who even knows what last season was about, but it's a complete outlier if you look at his career as a whole. So which one is likelier: a guy has a career year that he can never match or get close to again, or that a guy suddenly becomes a star at the age of 28/29, after being mediocre his entire career so far.

could you do a video about the contracts of owen nolan? Two separate contract situations that were disputed.

Keller in AZ is starting to show he deserves a LTC but needs to keep his production up and stay healthy to show he deserves 7+ per year.

Tkachuk’s contract I think will age fine barring injuries or a falloff that I don’t see happening anytime soon. Kadri I think will be among the worst once a few years into the deal occurs, should be ok starting out but down the line it’s going to be rough. I remember that Dipietro contract all those years ago, crazy to think it’s still being paid out. A shame he couldn’t stay healthy though was a fan of his game.

What about the Yashin 21 year deal with the NYI?

The other part I hate is not knowing which teams are on a players no trade list. Takes so much fun of speculation of possible deals. For instance Ducks goalie Gibson has 10 team no trade list, was Edmonton on it? They really needed a goalie last year.

Tom brady makes 20M a year and still blows refs for calls

Staal signed his contract with the Canes

Guarantee nobody said McDavids contract would age bad

The other side of this issue.....teams giving up good and popular players for very little because of the big contracts....is frustrating. The Jackets giving up Oliver Bjorkstrand for peanuts was miserable for we fans.

As soon as I saw the title I knew Karlsson was going to be front and center. While I'm glad the majority of SJ fans now realize how bad of a deal it is, it's amazing how long it took them to figure it out lol Then again, people around here are terrified to think for themselves, so I guess it makes sense.

You should do a video on the best and worst gm’s in the league

Some teams, of course, got away with solving their long contract problems with LTIR.

Prediction - generally they don’t, except for the player who gets paid. Now, time to watch.

Oddly enough, after having thought about it for a year, I'm no longer that worried about Jones' contract. He had an elite year (despite some Dang-Its and bloopers, statistically he was great- and no im not just talking about point production) and realistically he could reproduce that 2 or 3 times in the next 5 years. The last 3 years it might be tougher but at that point the cap should be significantly higher. 9.5mil could be equivalent to today's 8mil (in terms of % of the cap). At that point you can either stomach it for 3 years or pull an OEL or Kessel sort of deal where the team offloads him with low retention and some term remaining on the deal (1.25 for OEL, 1.2 for Kessel).

Who was the GM that signed Suter and Parise to those contracts? Well I'm sure whoever that is would never get work again and SURELY wouldn't continue to write bad contracts. Right? RIGHT? Oh yeah, Fletcher is now in Philly. Super. Can not stand him.

Oh!

Backstrom had a 10 year contract and it was one of the best contact I’ve seen tbh

As soon as I saw this recommended I knew as a Sharks fan I'm gonna have a bad time

I think teams are making a big mistake assuming the cap is going to go up. All signs in the financial market are pointing to a long, very deep recession. This means people are going to have far less disposable income to spend on tickets and merchandise. The NHL, like all businesses, is going to have to really tighten its belt to survive the next few years. Things are gonna be ugly.

draisaitl, nuge, hyman

Why do people hate Evander Kane so much, minus the off ice stuff ? (New nhl fan)

Ilya bryzgalov 10 year 10m per was a dandy for Philly

I like your videos

I'd expect the Avs to sign MacKinnon to an 8 year extension before the season starts. Probably 9.5 per year.. give or take

Jack Hughes contract is gonna age extremely well.

Jordan staal was basically a sign and trade. Everyone knew he was going to play with Eric that summer

When I look at long-term contracts, the amount of term is not something I have an issue with, unless they involve players whose best days are behind them and they are now going down from the peak of their careers. The main issue I have is the dollar amount. I'm looking at the Darnell Nurse contract and thinking "there is no way he is worth $9+M. With the way he played the past few seasons, he should be more of a $6-7M a year player. If he was on most of the other NHL teams he would probably get the $6M contract per year." And I know he is supposed to be the Oilers' #1 defenseman, but that is still a high contract. As for the term, maybe a 6 or 7 year deal would have been a smarter move, but I think I can take the 8 year deal. It's the $9+M a year that has me scratching my head. And that Kovalchuk contract was just ridiculous. It wasn't the 20 year contract Gretzky signed with Pocklinton (though that was a services contract, so even if Gretzky's playing days were over, as long as he was still employed by Pocklinton to drive his limousine or something, he would still get paid until the contract was up). New Jersey had to pay a hefty price for circumventing the cap, but it was a higher penalty than Chicago was hit with for committing an even worse crime (hiring a sexual predator, keeping this information from the owner and the rest of the league, and covering up his true colours when players came forward to admit they were assaulted by said predator).

Results may vary.

Ugh killing me with that kovy thumbnail.

Cernak at 25 years old signed 8-year contract.

The Sabres had to sign Thompson to a big deal the same way the Blue Jackets had to sign Werenski to a big deal. It shows the other free agents that these small markets are here to compete.

If you sign a player to a long term contract beyond his mid thirties, you will regret it. If the player is 25 or younger the risk is way lower.

I think maximum contract length in football (soccer) is five years

Good content, thanks. Zibanejad is another one at 8 years.

I think you missed Brodin.

you forgot Josh Anderson in the 7 years list

Looks like the GM's mind set is more or less like "I go for winning now and don't care about future problems with 7M cap hit for a 36-year-old bottom-6 guy because if it works I won and if it didn't work it won't be my problem".

stop hating on KOVY. he played through a back ache to lead the devils to the stanley cup!

I don't know why GMs have not structured these contracts so that the last 2 or 3 years of an 8-year contract are paid equal to the cap hit. Would that not make buyout or trade easier?

Johan Franzen is all I need to say lmao

In retrospect if the Sharks kept Josh Norris and did not trade for Karlsson. They might of had another top forward and could have kept Joe Pavelski. Burns might still be here without Erik. Sometimes older players are given contracts as a thank you for past performance at lower salaries.

Nitpick: Crosby was 26 when he signed his contract :)

Not going to lie, bringing up Kovalchuk still hurts.

They almost always age badly if they take a player into their late 30s. The one good thing about the Miller contract is that it's all salary, no bonuses. If and when JT stops putting up points, it will be much easier than say, a Loui Eriksson contract, to buy out. I probably wouldn't have signed that contract for any player taking them that age, especially on a team that isn't close to a Cup, but it's easy enough to buy out, I guess. It just means we're going to continue to be weak on D for a long time.

The issue with long term contracts is how much uncertainty are you buying? The closer a player gets to 30 when that contract comes around...the uncertainty factor goes up exponentially. When Price signed his deal virtually every person screamed "genius".... now look at all the dead money, and it is not the players fault, but Montreal is paying a ton of money to watch their franchise goalie go to the doctors office.

Cool

Given the title of this video, seeing Shannon in teal was not a good intro... although that jersey and hat combo is fantastic.

I don’t get how the Canucks get punished for signing a contract that was *legal at the time it was signed*

How could you forget draisaitl???

I'm glad the NHL bonked NJ over the head for that crazy Kovalchuk contract.

The hockey guy if NHL GM’s could they would still be signing players to 17 year contracts

didnt KK just sign a 8 year contract with the hurricanes?

David Clarkson the best deal

I liked Kadri's season. But, this contract is going to age like leftover fish. The likelihood of him matching his last season, even one time, over the term of that contract is near zero this ywar and will only get worse.

Long cheaper contracts aren't a thing, yet. Interesting is someone gets a 7 year, $5 million cap hit soon at age 28+

David Clarkson 7 year deal was best

They might age well if we get hyperinflation.

Can we get another mack friendly 6.5 mil Contract forever like forever... please God