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Aston-Reese contract provides better value than Tanev for similar role

July 22, 2019, 8:46 PM ET [143 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed Zach Aston-Reese. They did so right before the team and player were scheduled for an arbitration hearing today. Aston-Reese received a two-year deal that will pay him 1.0M per season.




This is a decent enough depth signing from a value standpoint. Aston-Reese is a useful depth player who has strong defensive numbers




Aston-Reese only has 57 NHL games to his credit at this point. He was on the wrong end of a Tom Wilson cheap shot which broke his jaw. In his 59 career games he has 12 goals and 23 points. Last year he played 43 games and had a 1.81 points per 60 at 5v5. His 12 career goals in only 59 games is half of Brandon Tanev's career total in 30% of Tanev's games played (195).

I'm not hear to say Aston-Reese is an amazing depth player, but I am here to say the Penguins are getting way more value on a two-year deal worth only 1M per season in Aston-Reese than they are with Brandon Tanev at 3.5M for six years.


With the signing the Penguins are now over the salary cap




We know there are trades to come, but it doesn't change the fact that Pittsburgh has way too many bloated depth contracts. These contracts were self-inflicted mistakes and will now force the general managers hand in order to be cap compliant.

This team could have been in a position to land a really good player like Jake Gardiner which would be the type of addition to propel the Penguins back into contenders. For right now they are pretenders.

Thanks for reading!
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