This season was kinda weird. Kreider scored 50 goals but I don't think he's a 50 goal scorer. Kinda a similar situation to Kadri and wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the guys who tore it up this year revert back to some reasonable mean.
He's not. The odds are strongly in favour of his last season being an aberration. History proves he's a 50-60 point center. At his age, he's not worth much more than $7M x 4 years... and only that because he's a UFA and there will always be one desperate GM willing to over pay in order to try to save his job.
I don't think he's worth $9m. He's never had a season aside from this past one where a player of that calibre is worth even remotely close to $9m.
Despite having followed the NHL to some extent for soon 30 years I haven't been following the off-season that intently until now.
I'm a Kadri fan and think your both right , 7 years is too much term but the number has to be at least in the eights for the AAV , maybe he makes in the 9's or even 10 for one or more of the early years , something like 8,10,10, 8, 6 =8.4 AAV and takes him to 37 yrs old which is probably the end of his productive years . I can even see an extra million to the first and last years which makes it 8.8 AAV but thats probably the limit . He wants to finish his career in the century club but I doubt it happens he puts up top 5 numbers for all of his next contract and then signs a big money short term afterward .
There's always a couple of deals that get held back until training camps are open and teams get to see what some of the hopeful guys actually come in as . The news of Lehner for example was probably known by most of the GMs at the end of last season but teams like the Islanders that have a solid veteran backup are probably waiting to see if their minor league next up guy is going to be ready to move up full time . If they think he is then they will talk to Vegas and some of the other teams that desperately need a better goalie in their roster . It;s that dead time between arbitration and the start of camp right now so not much will be released by teams , in 5-6 weeks thins will start moving again .
As for pure UFA signings I think most of the big names are usually signed within the first week. The ones that take longer, or never happen, are the ones where GMs have to clear cap space to make room for a high priced UFA. Kadri is now in the latter category.
Yeah I don't think you want to do that when you're 32 when the season starts. He knows it's going to be tough to maintain this level of play for much longer.
