I could see Raymond being a less established comparison to Necas and Konecny even if I expect a higher upside. Seider undeniably is more proven than Faber. $70m/8 yrs. is the minimum AAV I can see him accepting long term.
- jfkst1
My only thinking on Raymond is that he hit 30 in year 3. Konecny didn’t cross that line until 25. Necas has never hit it. He hit 28 goals in 82 games, and the team wanted to move him for whatever reason. It sounds like a similar issue with Konecny. Raymond’s goal scoring is ahead of Necas who hit 16 in his first 60+ season, then two seasons of 14. It is easy to see Yzerman saying, “you’ve played 3 seasons” but his early on numbers are pretty good. Either you grab a 3 or 4 year deal now or try to lock him in until he’s around 29.
The deals that have hit this past week feel for sure like they’ve at least lent to what is likely being spoken about at those meetings. Seider feels like the “must” as far as max term but Raymond shocked me with his performance starting at 19. In full candor, I don’t know what agents are saying other than reports of projected cap % and pulling the highest growth estimates from Bettman. I guess the argument becomes, what are the most valuable chunk of years (whether RFA or UFA) in terms of performance for most players? 24-30? 25-31? Starting to see how a new CBA could attempt to address it by pushing arbitration back to the end of the ELC. The kids coming in know that a good showing in the first 3 years with no arbitration can actually work in their favor if they’re willing to play hard ball.
