money is money. how many Caps players make as much or more than 19? lots of contracts have been signed since Backstrom signed his.
That contract was signed in 2010, which is a long time ago now. It was under the previous CBA (you can't sign 10 year contracts now, the limit is 8). The cap has gone way up since 2010 and you have to take inflation into account.
Ovechkin signed a 13 year, $124M ($9.5M AAV) contract back in 2008. Suppose we could use a time machine and replace our current 30 year old Ovi with a 23 year old Ovi. What contract would he get in 2016?
Answer: 8 years, $112M ($14M AAV).
Why? First, he'd be far and away the best player in the world for at least a decade and $14M is close to the max player contract. If guys like Toews make $10.5M, a peak Ovechkin makes $14M easily.
Now, back to Kuznetsov. If we sent him in that same time machine back to 2010, then I agree, he would get less than Backstrom. See my point ?
Kopitar - UFA, Forward
Doughty - RFA, Defencemen
Keith - 13 year, cap circumventing contract, outlier (probably best contract in NHL)
40-40 is better than 50-30 or 30-50. (in vacuum)
Ov is better because of greater on-ice impact and physicality\durability aspect
Kuznetsov will get contract 0.5 north of Holtby cap hit. As long as he doesn't separate himself from Backstrom.
How is 40-40 better than 50-30? Goals are more desirable than assists. A few players get 50 assists every year, only one player gets 50 goals. The whole argument for Ovechkin being the best forward in the world (at least last year) is that he brought more to the table than any other forward because of what you mentioned
and the 50 goals.
Tarasenko is a little bit better than Kuzy and managed to get $7.5M. Granted, he is the Blues' franchise player whereas Kuzy is only one of the most important players on the team. It's not unreasonable to sign Kuzy to a 8 year $56M contract. We will have him at an affordable price for most of his prime.