frightenedinmatenum2
Registered User
Established third line center cost 4.5-5.5 million in UFA.
Pinto will cost 3 or so million on a 2-3 year bridge.
If he signs a 2-year bridge deal at 3M per and establishes himself as a 20/60 2-way center who plays 18-19 minutes a game, he will ask for 7M-8M on a long-term bridge because that's the salary structure we established, and his fourth contract will come when he has arbitration and is much closer to unrestricted-free agency.
If he will sign 6-8 years at 6M or under, you gotta do it.
If they sign him to the typical Sens' contract that does not have signing bonuses and is not front-loaded, they would have lots of flexibility to get out of the contract if it doesn't work out.
Look at Josh Norris. While I don't in a million years think they will buyout Norris, if they decide this offseason that he is not part of the solution, and there are no takers in a trade, they could buy him out and they would only owe him 12 million dollars. Even more absurd, because the contract was backloaded, they get a cap credit, the result would be that Norris basically doesn't have a cap hit for the first four years of his buyout (negative 112k cap hit in year 1-3, 647k cap hit in year 4).
Basically, these contracts are so easy to get out of, that 6 more years at 8M would only cost the Senators about 1.5M in dead cap starting 4 seasons from this offseason when the cap ceiling should be over 100M. See, Colin White as another example.
There is also a bias where people tend to only look at the long-term post ELC contracts that don't really work out as well, but they also don't account for contracts that become an insane value. Even with the Senators playing badly, there is no way Tkachuk, Stutzle, or Sanderson would be cheaper if they were bridged. That also doesn't account for the higher likelihood that they leave after a bridge (See Matthew Tkachuk, who was open to a long-term deal after his ELC in Calgary, they went for a bridge, and then he left after).
Pinto will cost 3 or so million on a 2-3 year bridge.
If he signs a 2-year bridge deal at 3M per and establishes himself as a 20/60 2-way center who plays 18-19 minutes a game, he will ask for 7M-8M on a long-term bridge because that's the salary structure we established, and his fourth contract will come when he has arbitration and is much closer to unrestricted-free agency.
If he will sign 6-8 years at 6M or under, you gotta do it.
If they sign him to the typical Sens' contract that does not have signing bonuses and is not front-loaded, they would have lots of flexibility to get out of the contract if it doesn't work out.
Look at Josh Norris. While I don't in a million years think they will buyout Norris, if they decide this offseason that he is not part of the solution, and there are no takers in a trade, they could buy him out and they would only owe him 12 million dollars. Even more absurd, because the contract was backloaded, they get a cap credit, the result would be that Norris basically doesn't have a cap hit for the first four years of his buyout (negative 112k cap hit in year 1-3, 647k cap hit in year 4).
Basically, these contracts are so easy to get out of, that 6 more years at 8M would only cost the Senators about 1.5M in dead cap starting 4 seasons from this offseason when the cap ceiling should be over 100M. See, Colin White as another example.
There is also a bias where people tend to only look at the long-term post ELC contracts that don't really work out as well, but they also don't account for contracts that become an insane value. Even with the Senators playing badly, there is no way Tkachuk, Stutzle, or Sanderson would be cheaper if they were bridged. That also doesn't account for the higher likelihood that they leave after a bridge (See Matthew Tkachuk, who was open to a long-term deal after his ELC in Calgary, they went for a bridge, and then he left after).
