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Abby's salary demands are probably league minimum. He's getting paid 4.25 million the next 3 years regardless.
I doubt he's even trying to play, tbh.
Confirmed with Link: Abdelkader placed on waivers for buyout
- Thread starter Ricelund
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Abby's salary demands are probably league minimum. He's getting paid 4.25 million the next 3 years regardless.
I doubt he's even trying to play, tbh.
Steve Yzerlland
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No kidding. Brilliant analysis. He isn't even an NHL player NOW. Easy to look back and say with conviction though. He was on USA , 20 goal scorer and was suppose to at least be that going forward. You can pretend all you want but would have been considered if he PROGRESSED. Larkin was a little kid when he was already in the NHL playing with Z and Dats and producing.
Ghost of Ethan Hunt
The Official Ghost of Space Ghosts Monkey
Never thought of Abby as "potential Captain material or potential all-star" either. Team USA was weak, so they got Abby (for the trenches/net), doesn't mean he's good, he was Blash's pick, no bias there. AA scored 30G & may be in the KHL soon too, so who cares Abby got 20G playing with the best 2-way F in the game (at the time), with tons of PP opps...how many were deflected in off Abby btw?
SimonEdvinssonAtSix
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Abby was never more than a trash version of Holmstrom. He was never going to get a C. Don't let dudemanguy get in your head.
Lazlo Hollyfeld
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Abdelkader was never going to live up to that contract. Most everyone knew it from the moment it was signed.
Grossly overpaying someone doesn't give them all star potential.
Steve Yzerlland
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Not saying he was but hindsight is 20/20 and no one thought he wouldn't be an NHL player anymore... but I know it's easy to always be right after the fact...
Steve Yzerlland
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Your logic is flawed. You have future data to know he would never reproduce his numbers. Last time I am saying this. IF he would have continued to produce at the same rate or better and increased his leadership role he would have been considered a captain. He is from Michigan went to MSU and has almost the identical merits as Larkin other than he is clearly not as good!
Lazlo Hollyfeld
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It doesn't take hindsight.
As I said in my post, prevailing opinion at the time was that it was a bad contract. We're not talking about some 19 year old kid here. Abdelkader was a known commodity.
Holland gave Abdelkader that contract in November of 2015. It was his 6th year in the league, he was 28 years old, and coming off a career high shooting percentage at almost 15%.
He wasn't suddenly going to hit an All-star level as a 28 year old just because Holland overpaid him. Maybe it's a surprise he washed out of the NHL, but he was never going to earn that contract.
Lazlo Hollyfeld
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His logic is flawed?
It didn't take future data to know he wouldn't never reproduce those numbers. Prior to 2015, Abby had never cracked 10% shooting percentage for a full season. The year he got the contract he shot 14.9%. He was never going to sustain that production let alone do better no matter how many goals Datsyuk banked in off of him.
Gniwder
Registered User
The other factor was that everyone knew he'd be useless after D and Z retired. Holland didn't just give him money, he gave Abby term and money which is what really bothered me. One or the other I could understand, but overpayment for 7 years?!?!
Even if he had stayed healthy, he was slow to begin with, and once he's placed on a line with Flip, Nielsen, LGD, or Ehn as center, he wasn't going to score anyways.
... and you are right, it didn't take much hindsight, pretty much everyone here hated the contract from the moment it was signed.
HisNoodliness
The Karate Kid and ASP Kai
If you go back to the day it was signed, you'll find nearly everyone ripping the contract to shreds on here. We all agreed that it was both 2 years too long and 1-2 million too much. Everyone knew it was bad. Sure Abby did even worse than expected, but it was a terrible contract and everyone knew it from day one.
The buck stops with Holland on giving guys contracts, but shouldn't Ryan Martin be getting some heat here? I thought part of his job, at least at that time, was to make player comps and figure out where a guy's value is and how they fit into the cap structure. Given how guys similar to Gator (Brouwer, that guy in Boston, etc.) got paid that summer, and how far out there that contract ended up being even when compared to similar players that offseason, the guy in charge of figuring that stuff out to advise Holland should be getting some flak here, too.
Steve Yzerlland
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I hated his contract from the day he signed it doesn't hide the fact the future wasn't written yet and if he got better he would have been captain or considered...
HisNoodliness
The Karate Kid and ASP Kai
It's true that the contract would have been fine if Abdelkader got better... But why would anyone expect him to get better? He never produced without a superstar carrying him. He never produced well even with one carrying him. He plays a game that shouldn't age well. He was riding a sky high shooting percentage. He was exiting his prime. Expecting Abdelkader to stay as good as he was was a long shot and it would have been a bad contract even then. We needed him to wake up a better player at 30 than he was at 27 for it to be a good deal. Almost no one does that, and none of them play like Abdelkader.
The future's not written, but we can still make predictions. If I offered you a bet: "I'm going to flip two coins, if either is tails (75%) you give me a dollar, if both are heads, I'll give you a dollar." Would you take that bet? Of course not. It's a bad bet. The future's not written. There's a 25% chance that you win the dollar, but it's more likely I win so it's a bad deal for you.
Everyone correctly predicted it was a terrible deal because we had every reason to believe it would be. That's what makes it a bad contract. We could sign Glendenning to a 5x5 right now and it would be a terrible idea. The future's not written and if he becomes a 50 point player it would be a good deal. He'd be captain material and a solid shutdown 2C. But we have no reason to think he will become a 50 point player and thus a 5x5 would be stupid. You can make predictions based on what you know and judge things based on those predictions.
Everyone predicted Abdelkader would be a 30-40 point bottom 6 winger for the first few years and hopefully serviceable after. He was even worse. It was a terrible contract from day one. We all knew it would be. Even if he magically became way better, it was a bad bet to make unless there was a good reason to suspect he should get better.
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Lazlo Hollyfeld
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Sure if you ignore all other context. Your same line of reasoning could be applied to Glendening. He's from Michigan and played at U of M. If only he inexplicably improved in his late 20s maybe he would've been named captain.
But it's equally likely monkeys would fly out of his butt, because the future is not written yet.
Steve Yzerlland
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Glendening never scored 20+ and played exclusively with Z. Gator got that deal because Holland saw him as one of the better players on the team...
Frk It
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He had 500 games played in the NHL before that season that said he wasn't that kind of player.
Lazlo Hollyfeld
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You're really going to make this your hill to die on?
No one really expected Abdelkader to become All-star or captain material. Holland even had a hard time justifying it. "Big body, hard worker, character guy." As if those are the players you typically lock up for 7 years when they're already 28 years old.
Watching this makes me glad Holland has moved on.
Oddbob
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Listen to Holland talk nowadays makes me wonder if he really is a good judge of talent anymore. Even if it wasn't Stevie that took over, I am glad his run here was over, it was more than time.
Lazlo Hollyfeld
The jersey ad still sucks
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I know it's become a running joke but he really did seem to get sentimental in his old age. Helm and Abdelkader contracts being prime examples.
From a human angle I get it, but not a great quality in a GM.
Ricelund
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Steve Yzerlland
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Listening to that video actually proves my point thanks. If he would have progressed he would have been considered captain on day based on how management looked at him...
Lazlo Hollyfeld
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I know you're skeptical of Larkin being named captain to put it mildly, but you're only embarrassing yourself at this point.
Retire91
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Too me Abdelkader adequately represents the transition from cup contending possession hockey, to get in and anything can happen real gud hockey.
Abby's legacy is not a bright eyed kid gets his chance in the NHL. His legacy is overpaid by GM who ran the team into the ground to protect a dying owner's ego. Peace out Abby, glad you are gone and sorry you were here. Although I wish we would have just ate his contract so there was no buyout penalty.
Abby's legacy is not a bright eyed kid gets his chance in the NHL. His legacy is overpaid by GM who ran the team into the ground to protect a dying owner's ego. Peace out Abby, glad you are gone and sorry you were here. Although I wish we would have just ate his contract so there was no buyout penalty.
