https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvucjMP-dss
This video contains an interesting theory. When you look at the contracts Yzerman signed Tampa's players to there is a clear pattern. Stamkos, Hedman, Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, Palat, and Miller were all signed to bridge deals after their ELC expired. The first four received their long term contracts afterwards.
Obviously, Yzerman signed Larkin to the big contract last summer, but he had signed a bridge deal with Holland. I think many of us were just assuming that Mo and Raymond would get 8 year contracts for big money this summer, but this may be why Yzerman is in no rush to sign either. He may want short deals, and that's going to be harder to negotiate.
What do you all think? Will they get 8 year contracts and take up half the remaining cap, or will Yzerman repeat his past patterns and sign either or both to bridge deals that limit their immediate cap hit? This could mean the difference between fitting a high priced UFA on the roster this summer, or not.
by doubeljack
6 Comments
The bridge makes more sense if the cap is going to go up again. Agents and players want the most total dollars they can get, that will very much so help them do that
Ultimately it depends on what they want too. I think it’s in our best interest to get at least one of them signed to max term if possible (preferably Raymond) though.
The players want bridges so they can up their dollar amounts of their contract. The team wants term to save on the back end as the cap rises.
It depends on the player of course, but for me it makes more sense for the org to sign both to 8 year deals. Theyve both been in the league for 3 years. Won a Calder. Last season Seider played the toughest minutes in the league and Raymond had a great season and is only going to get better and better. Their cap hit now may be higher, but the last 3-4 years of these deals they may be great bargains especially if the cap keeps increasing and increasing.
I think the reality is that it’s going to be tough to get both of them at max length and value right now. If that means we get a bridge deal for one, perhaps. Would be really tough to see them both bridging but it could happen. Obviously not what the players want but we’ll see where things end up.
We’re either getting them slightly less than the theoretical maxes (say, 7.5/yr each instead of 8-8.5+) for team-friendly AAV and a max term, or someone’s going to bridge. It just seems so unlikely that we’ll be able to nail them both down otherwise given the other work we need to do with our roster in the off-season.
Ray and Mo and their agencies are not going to entertain a bridge, there’s hardly a scenario where this makes sense for either party tbh