The 2024 NHL free-agent signing interval opened Monday, and the cash was flowing wildly with the league’s wage cap lastly beginning to rise.
There have been 185 signings that included greater than $1 billion in long-term {dollars} handed out.
Whereas there have been some excellent bargains available, there have been additionally fairly a couple of contracts that seem like overpays from the very starting.
Right here, we’re going to check out a couple of of these potential overpays.
The Seattle Kraken went from being a top-10 offensive group in 2022-23 to one of many league’s worst offensive squads in 2023-24. It was apparent they had been going to need to do one thing this offseason to handle that. They made two big free-agent investments on Monday, and so they had been each among the many greatest overpays of the day.
Let’s begin with essentially the most obtrusive of the 2, which is the seven-year, $43.7 million contract given to Chandler Stephenson.
There’s nothing improper with having Stephenson in your roster, particularly with the best way he progressed after becoming a member of the Golden Knights a couple of years in the past and actually began to breakout offensively.
However signing non-star gamers in free company for seven-year contracts is an particularly dangerous transfer. When the greenback determine will get up over $6 million per 12 months for a participant who’s going to be 30 years outdated subsequent season and noticed a 14-point drop in his manufacturing regardless of rising his taking pictures proportion, it turns into virtually nonsensical.
There are some contracts that you understand are going to be an issue for a group earlier than the ink dries.
This may very well be one among them.
It is an amazing deal for Stephenson, and a testomony to how a lot his profession improved the previous few years, but it surely may be one which Seattle rapidly involves remorse.
The Kraken’s different massive free-agent transfer Monday was at hand out one other seven-year deal, this time to Brandon Montour, which got here in at $7.1 million per season.
Like Stephenson, there may be nothing improper with wanting Montour in your group.
His sport actually blossomed in Florida over the previous couple of years, reaching his peak with a 73-point effort through the 2022-23 season.
However that offensive efficiency looks like an excessive outlier in his profession, and it appears most unlikely he ever comes near matching that quantity once more. Particularly after going from a loaded Panthers group to a Kraken group that’s quick on game-breakers and offensive stars.
On one hand, perhaps that is simply the going fee for an offensive-minded defenseman.
But it surely looks like the Kraken may need been paying for what he did two years in the past as an alternative of the participant he’s going to be for the subsequent few years.
Good participant. However perhaps the improper value.
It isn’t onerous to see why Nikita Zadorov was in a position to get an enormous contract on the open market.
He brings huge measurement (6’6″, 248 lbs) and intensely bodily play, two issues that normal managers completely love in a defenseman. Add within the truth he had an excellent playoff exhibiting for the Vancouver Canucks, and you’ve got a participant who was positively going to money in on the open market.
Zadorov completely did when he signed his six-year, $30 million contract with the Boston Bruins.
Regardless that the Bruins had been among the finest goal-prevention groups within the NHL through the 2023-24 season, that success was largely pushed by the play of their goalies. Their protection positively wanted an improve.
Zadorov’s contract is not the worst overpay of the day, however he in all probability is not impactful sufficient in terms of driving play, suppressing pictures or creating offense to justify the six-year time period size and salary-cap quantity. Particularly in the event that they play him greater than third-pairing minutes and anticipate him to fill a key shutdown function.
NHL normal managers are all the time going to discover a spot for gamers like Joel Edmundson, and so they completely love buying them every time they’ve the prospect.
So far as overpays go, that is in all probability one of many least objectionable as a result of it is solely value just a little greater than $3 million per season over 4 years.
However even that’s nonetheless an overpay as a result of, on the finish of the day, the 31-year-old Edmundson might be finest suited to be a third-pairing defender on a superb group (and the Los Angeles Kings intend to be a superb group), and you’ll in all probability discover that for a less expensive value with shorter time period.
It isn’t a cap-crushing contract.
However it’s a type of little offers the place, should you make too lots of them, they add up into massive issues.
No group made extra splashes on Monday than the Nashville Predators.
Whereas the additions of forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault had been in all probability nice values given their manufacturing, the Skjei contract (seven years, $49 million) does seem like a little bit of an overpay.
Like with Montour, this would possibly merely be the going fee for a top-four defenseman on the open market, however Skjei is hardly a star and goes to be 30 years outdated when the season begins. Does he actually have that many robust years in entrance of him?
And once more, a seven-year contract on the free-agent marketplace for a participant who is not a star virtually by no means works out long-term. These offers are inclined to usually finish in a buyout or wage retained commerce after just some years.
If the Predators win the Stanley Cup throughout these years no one in Nashville will care. However that’s setting a excessive bar and is much from a given to occur. Odds are a lot greater it ends in disappointment.