This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the New York Islanders this season. This article will focus on Ryan Pulock.
Pulock has a very well-rounded game and is certainly New York’s best all-around defender– and he showed that again this season. He’s able to put up strong numbers, scoring 10 goals and 35 points, but is also very defensively sound. He’s not prone to poor mistakes and doesn’t take many nights off. Pulock also averaged the most time on ice of any player on the team, both overall and at even strength and he can play on both the power play and penalty kill, which is a pretty huge benefit. Still just 25 years old, he’s likely to be the top defenseman on the team for a long time and it’s possible his pairing with Adam Pelech is one that could remain intact for years.
The one thing about Pulock’s great play is that it’s going to come at a cost. In need of a new contract, Pulock will likely be signed to a long-term deal and it wouldn't be shocking to see it in the seven or eight-year range. It’s not going to be cheap and my early guess (I’ll do a more extensive article on a contract prediction in the future) is that the AAV will be somewhere around $7.5 million. For what Pulock brings to the table though, he’ll be worth every dollar of it.
I’ve said it before, but Pulock is one of the few defensemen who’s just as good in his own end as he is offensively. In his third full NHL season, Pulock managed to meet, if not surpass expectations.
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted this weekend). Sorry to do a similar poll to yesterday but I’m genuinely very curious as to what people think about this one:
What is your prediction for the AAV of Ryan Pulock's next contract (on an eight-year deal)?
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