If you sign Hayes for 5 years Makar and whoever we get with the OTT pick won’t need to be signed for 3 years at the earliest. During those 3 years we’ll lose Soda’s, Nieto’s, and Barberio’s cap hits.
Soda and Barbie almost 100% don’t come back. We have to re sign Barrie and Girard and we don’t know what the deal Barrie is yet and whether he’ll be re signed. Girard will but so far he’s had one good year and a bit of a sophomore slump. I’d like us to sign him long term but who really knows how much he’ll be worth at that point.
Basically signing Hayes won’t cripple this team. He brings tons of flexibility and can play a multiple roles for us: 2C, 3C, 2W, 3W.
Tor probably didn't think Marleaus 3 year deal would hurt them either but here they are. Mikko could get double digits, Makar, Kaut, Ott 1st could all get big money. In 3 years Gabe is a UFA. Also for every player play that leaves their spot will have to be filled.
My points are just these:
-Cap disappears far faster than you think and with guaranteed contracts once you're locked in you are locked in and stuck there. So you had better get it right the first time or handicap your team for multiple years.
-Cap should be distributed by position essentially. If Stone get paid like a 1st liner but produces like a 1st liner your are probably good. However if Hayes gets paid like a 2nd liner but produces like a 3rd liner then you have a bad deal weighing your club down, so you had better get them right.
-If you have a lot of talented young players you should account for the possibility that they become talented NHL players, in which case you will have to pay them as such. We saw with Mikko how in a blink of an eye a 10th round pick becomes a superstar and while you may have though he'd get 5.5-6.5 in the past will all of a sudden will make 10.
Every bad contract cripples a team little by little and you don't notice its too late until you're stuck.
Drafting/Dev is the most important part of building a hockey team, to get and maintain enough talent to win. The second most important is cap management, which will determine how many of those talented players you can keep and for how long. You can make a great team but injuries and luck are a big part of the playoffs, so you want a team that can compete for many years if you really want the best shot at winning, as a lot of the time the team that goes to the Cup final is the one with the easiest path and/or the least amount of injuries.
