Holland has no issue paying depth grinders 4+ million per year, but will absolutely not pay an (inconsistent) skilled, athletic, competitive 25 year old goalie 4 million? I really don't understand how he can justify letting Mrazek go for spare parts because he doesn't think he deserves 4 million, yet he paid guys like Abby, Helm, Nielsen, Ericsson, Dekeyser this kind of money. It's pretty evident he doesn't know how to prioritize in a cap era. He signs 4th liners to 4 million dollar contracts, yet lets talented goalies walk, and plays hardball with young skilled forwards.
...but he did pay Mrazek.... Petr got roughly $7M in 1.75 seasons and delivered goaltending that you'd expect from a $700k a year goalie.
He doesn't deserve more. Even Mike Milbury under the influence of plastic bottle tequila wouldn't grant that QO.
I can easily justify the letting go. Despite losing the starting job in 15/16, Petr wanted big bucks and got them, they also kicked Bedard to the curb and promoted GR's goalie coach to help him and came into 16/17 with Mrazek as the starter. He then dropped the starting again, then again to Jared Coreau of all goalies, then he played like garbage in the WC, then he got exposed in the ED where any team could've paid Vegas a meager 6th rounder to get him for them and no one bit. For the entire duration of two seasons where he made around $4M, he waited until the last month or so to play like a $2M goalie. He was never and is not now worth $4.15M.
When signed, none of those players were "depth grinders" .While all the players you listed may not perform now to the dollar amount they make, they at least were making a reasonable enough NHL level contribution comparable to others in that cost range before they signed those deals. When Abdelkader was given his contract, he was coming off 2 seasons where he averaged 20+ goals and 40+ points, Neilsen was still seen as a #2 C, etc. There is no correlation from what they make to just giving $4.15M to a goalie just because.
Giving Mrazek $4.15M for next season would be the equivalent to re-signing Aaron Downey for $2.5M/year after the 2008 Cup.
All of those players would've likely gotten the deals they have from other teams on the open market. As for Petr, there is
ZERO chance he gets anything close to $4M on the open market this summer. Apple to oranges in comparison to the others.
As for his "young skilled forwards", they don't have the leverage and can thus be cost controlled. And as far as "hardball" with them is concerned, Athanasiou is the one that held out for what turned out to be $137.5k and Tatar got a contract that will likely make him another "overpaid vet" in a year or two...