There are a number of UFA players who have re-signed with the teams that had their rights. None of these players were realistically on the Penguins radar.
Jeff Skinner kicked things off with a 9M AAV and it is a contract the Sabres had to give. All things considered
not a horrible deal
Erik Karlsson finally got paid in the neighborhood that represents his actual value. San Jose is still all in on the next few years and it is hard to blame them. It is expensive (11.5M) and long (8), but it is also Erik Karlsson.
The Kevin Hayes contract was an eye opening one. I think Kevin Hayes is a really good player. He’s always had good underlying numbers and I think his raw offensive totals don’t tell the whole story because I’m not so sure he was deployed appropriately in New York at times (Grabner, Miller, Vesey top three common linemates last three years). However, 7.1M is a boat load of money. The Hayes contract is just the latest example of the NHL’s broken contract system. Teams are always paying for past performance and not future. A lot of NHL teams looking to get out of the middle of the pack are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. The 7.1M is an overpay, but the numbers look worse to those people comparing this deal to deals from a few years ago. Some other UFA deals in the ~9% cap hit percentage range were: Ryan Callahan, Evander Kane, Dustin Brown, Travis Zajac, James van Riemsdyk, Max Pacioretty, and Brandon Dubinsky. It’s a mixed bag with Pacioretty and Kane sticking out as the better ones on the list. Hayes is probably going to fall in the tier below those two. Bonus points to Philadelphia for having two current players on this list.
Pittsburgh has a projected cap space number of 6.3M. They are likely to sign Marcus Pettersson, Zach Aston-Reese, and Teddy Blueger which will take up at least a quarter of the 6.3M. If Pittsburgh wants to be a major player in the UFA market (not saying they should) they’ll have to cut more salary via trade. Options that could make sense are Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson, Joonas Donskoi and Gustav Nyqvist.
Thanks for reading!
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