It’s a Tuesday. It’s August. There is no major hockey news, unless you count the Leafs’ releasing their rookie camp roster (I don’t).
I got bored and was playing around on Cap Friendly, as one does. I wound up making a thing.
That thing is a spreadsheet that looks at the semi-recent contracts for all star (and just-below star) forwards have signed. It includes their age when they signed it, the amount of years, the AAV/cap hit, the percentage of the cap, and the 82-game season pace they had the year they signed their deal.
What I find interesting is looking at Matthews’ and Nylander’s deals in the context of other star players. Matthews, for example, has a lower percentage of the cap than Evgeni Malkin when he signed at the same age, also for 6 years. He signed for 1% of the cap more than Jack Eichel, but he also had a much better season offensively.
Nylander, meanwhile, signed for a slightly lower percentage of the cap than Pastrnak, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Johnny Gaudreau. He is slightly ahead of guys like Sean Monahan, Nate MacKinnon and Mark Scheifele. But you know what’s funny? The year before MacKinnon signed his now fantastic deal, his 82 game pace was 24 goals and 35 assists for 59 points. Nylander’s was 20 goals and 41 assists for 61 points.
Go ahead and look at it, play around with it, and see if you find a range you think Marner’s deal makes sense.
ONTO THE LINKS
Top 25 Under 25: Rasmus Sandin is first among prospects at #6 | by Species
Maple Leafs Announce Prospect Roster for Traverse City | by Katya
Some Thoughts On The Leafs Rookie Tournament Roster | by 51Leafs at TLN
Some other news that came from the roster announcement...
Noticed he was listed with the coaches on the roster for Traverse City. Now we know why. https://t.co/7qc7Rccud4
— Pension Plan Puppets (@PPPLeafs) August 27, 2019
How Kevin Gravel overcame illness to keep NHL dream alive with Leafs | by Hailey Salvian at The Athletic
AROUND THE HOCKEY WORLD
Oilers’ McDavid says he’s making progress but questions remain | by Luke Fox at Sportsnet
Canes prospect Mattheos to miss camp while fighting cancer | by TSN.ca. Obligatory FUCK CANCER!
Steve Staois traded, uh, every OHL player in the world to acquire his son.
Full #OHL Trade: Windsor trades D Nathan Staios to Hamilton for 2nd's in '20, '21 & '22, plus cond. 3rd '23 & cond. 5th in '24.
— Terry Doyle (@Terry_Doyle) August 27, 2019
Move over Kucherov, there’s a new deke in town.
Oh yes he did pic.twitter.com/ZWykcfEAxg
— KHL (@khl_eng) August 26, 2019
European league teams continue to troll NHL teams with unsigned RFAs
Hey @Avalanche! This guy looks quite happy in Hamar, and we promise to take good care of him! Just take your time, we've got jersey number 96 available... #GoAvsGo #2hockey #storhamargutta pic.twitter.com/1PuLma75iq
— Storhamar Hockey (@StorhamarHockey) August 26, 2019
Seattle continues to entertain terrible team names instead of picking Kraken like God intended!
Should Seattle’s NHL team be called “Kraken” or “Sasquatch” or “Freeze”? There’s a place to make yourself heard on that and maybe even get invited out for a beer. https://t.co/84YkRqeXEx #NHL #NHLSeattle #Kraken #Facebook #Totems #Metropolitans #Sockeyes
— Geoff Baker (@GeoffBakerTIMES) August 26, 2019
