Sorry but NO, it's more in the constant paranoia doom & gloom mood around here
People are massively whining about :
Greening 2.6
Phillips 2.5
Neil 1.9
League average is 2.4 (which includes tons of depth players, RFA and ELC contracts) and all those guys are proven players on UFA years (more expensive than ELC and RFA years), maybe a bit less for Greening. But yet, people are calling those "horrible contracts"
Do you realize how idiotic and paranoiac it sounds? Compare them to the rest of the league if you want :
http://stats.nhlnumbers.com/players
Also, 2 Millions on a 71 Millions salary cap is not even 3%. Even with a tight budget we can afford them
Greening signed an extension based on his play prior the 2013-14 season. He didn't even make 3 millions in his first 3.5 seasons. And he has been producing at a pace of 17 goals/20 assists which is pretty decent and easily worth 2.6 per
Neil has made $16,797,000 for 855 NHL games (12 seasons + next). It's about 1.2 on average per season
Phillips has made $35,076,250 for 1143 NHL games (16 seasons + next). It's about 2.05 on average per season
They gave this franchise hometown discounts basically all their careers. Don't you think it is not taken into account? Don't you think those guys deserve at least a bit of a break? They left a lot of blood on the ice, served the community and spent all their careers here, they also helped the team win A LOT.
Imagine if all NHL players and prospects read this board and see how much we bash and disrespect Neil and Phillips, would they have any interest in playing for this team after they see how fast we can turn on them because they have aged a bit and forget about all they did in the past?
And for the "they are blocking young guys for playing time" argument", I'd counter with :
Jean-Gabriel Pageau 21
Kyle Turris 24
Mika Zibanejad 21
Mike Hoffman 24
Mark Stone 22
Cody Ceci 20
Jared Cowen 23
Erik Karlsson 24
Patrick Wiercioch 23
Robin Lehner 22
Plus a lot more coming. And I'm not even talking about players 25-30, which we have plenty of.
Conclusion : you guys act like spoiled kids.
The only thing I care about is that the coach play them accordingly. No problem at all if Phillips plays 3rd pair minutes with 1st PK unit time, and if Neil plays 4th line minutes (8-10). Hopefully, young guys play well enough to force the coaching staff hands.