Ben, really 4.5 vs 5 mil per and he fills a need? I’m confused.
In Ottawa last season he was a fixture on the PP.
- nyisles7
$4.5M on the high end. My problem lies in the fact that third-line centers are probably not the players you want to be overpaying. If Barzal or Pulock is overpaid a bit, they're both likely to be key parts of the roster until the end of the contract. With Pageau being overpaid, on the other hand, if the Islanders end up developing a great center who could play in the top-nine and they need to move Pageau down the road to make room, the more expensive the deal, the harder it would be to move, and trying to move out a third-line center who's only likely to score about 30-40 points and is being paid $5 million may not be easy to do. To be clear, I don't hate the deal and I like Pageau as a player but overpayments like that could end up mattering.
I also personally wouldn't call him a fixture on Ottawa's power play like Chabot or Tkachuk was. Ranked 10th amongst Sens skaters (min. 20 GP) in PP TOI/GP at the time he was traded.