Confirmed with Link: Brady Skjei re-signed [6 years, $5.25MM AAV]

[nyr2k2]

Have NTC details come out for this deal? It's entirely possible Skjei got some sort of NTC protection for those UFA years.

No, nothing has been mentioned. Though, we don't even have an accurate year-by-year salary breakdown, unless it really is just the $5.25M each year.

 

[Fitzy]

I like the kid but jesus.

Salary cap adjusted, it's cheaper than the 6 year extension they gave McDonagh in 2013.

That's what players cost now, for better or worse. The cap continues to rise so this deal, which pretty much takes Skjei through most of his prime years, is IMO a good one.

 

[ReggieDunlop68]

Nailed it with the terms.

Good luck to Skajayjay’s development.

 

[eco's bones]

I'm fine with it. If we were going to lock him up for a while--that's about right for what I figured it would take.

 

[RangerBoy]

No restriction clauses. Nice.

 

[NYRFAN218]

No restriction clauses. Nice.

I don't get the breakdown. Wouldn't it make more sense for both the team and player to front load this deal as much as possible?

Though the one year where it drops in salary is the lockout season. I don't know, load up on bonuses and such. I'm not in the negotiations obviously but I don't know, just doesn't make sense.

 

[darko]

Bridge him? So if he turns into a top pair dman in a year or two and we have to pay him 7-8million? This is a great contract to lock him up through his prime years.

Even if he stays the same, a good 2nd pair dman, 5 million in the going price. Really at a loss how anyone could think this is anything but extremely fair.

This.

 

[Kovalev27]

Great deal would have given him 8 to be honest. Good top 4 dman.

 

[Kakko Schmakko]

So looks like the Tom Wilson signing forced the hand of Gorton to give in. With the likes of Miller, Hajek, Lindgren, Rykov, Pionk, Lundqvist, Day, and more coming up in the near future I wouldn't be surprised if Skjey is traded in 2 to 5 years from now.

 

[darko]

So looks like the Tom Wilson signing forced the hand of Gorton to give in. With the likes of Miller, Hajek, Lindgren, Rykov, Pionk, Lundqvist, Day, and more coming up in the near future I wouldn't be surprised if Skjey is traded in 2 to 5 years from now.

Wilson deal has nothing to do with Skjei.

Skjei's hearing was coming up. It's common for both parties to reach a deal right before the hearing.

 

[darko]

Great deal would have given him 8 to be honest. Good top 4 dman.

Let's hope he can now take the next step and become top pairing.

 

[Kakko Schmakko]

Also this is not a good precedent for our future RFAs who will think they deserve a huge contract after 1 good rookie season followed by a sophomore slump.

 

[Kakko Schmakko]

Let's hope he can now take the next step and become top pairing.

Let's hope he doesn't come to camp out of shape like Smith did last season. Let's hope he is much better than his stats were last season. Also is it too much to ask to play a bit more physical?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I understand both sides of the coin. He's going to be getting top 4, if not top pairing minutes in the next couple of years until a trade is made or a kid like Hajek wrestles the minutes away from him. Incidentally, I see Skjei and Hajek as similar players at the pro level.

It's a fair deal for Skjei. What if he puts up 8-10 goals and 40 assists next year? Easily attainable if he gets power play time and 20--25 minutes per night.

Skjei is going to get close to 50 points? This deal is a steal then. I'd say 25-30 is more realistic. He played 21 minutes per game last season and only had 25 points.

 

[kovazub94]

No problem!

Players usually fall within a range. Ideas like “slightly overpaid” don’t make sense because there is going to be a variance in each negotiation. There really isn’t such a thing as absolute value. And once the salaries get into this range, anything under $1m qualifies as slightly.

It’s entirely a perception thing. Slightly is just another word for acceptable in this context. If the deal is acceptable, it’s not really too much.

Hope I made your headache worse!

Headache is gone!

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I don't know how many agree or disagree with this, but I don't get the talk of Skjei struggling last season. I thought he was right about what you'd expect. He had a good season. He was playing a bigger role than he's capable of when McDonagh got traded, and he consequently played worse. I didn't think he had a bad season though.

I thought he was actually better last season than the season prior. He defended like a competent top 4 defensemen last season. The season prior, he scored a lot of points from secondary assists and played pretty bad defense. I thought he didn't have as good of a rookie season as some thought.

I think the issue is expecting Skjei to be a consistent 35-40 point guy or trying to compare him to McDonagh. He's a solid second pairing defensive defensemen who isn't terrible offensively, but he's not a big offensive guy, not a PP guy, and he's not a shutdown defensemen, despite being above-average defensively.

 

[darko]

No reason why Skjei can't hit 35-40 points next season.

 

[Matz03]

Also this is not a good precedent for our future RFAs who will think they deserve a huge contract after 1 good rookie season followed by a sophomore slump.

It's not a bad precedent either, historically the Rangers like to sign their top defenders to long-term deals and not bridge them, Staal and Mac being the recent rfa examples. I also don't see in any way how this forces them to give out long-term deals to guys they don't want to lock up, it didn't after the Staal or the Mac signings. The front office will pick and choose which players to lock up and which to bridge and my only hope is they assess and take more risks with core young forwards like they should've done with Stepan, they'll at least have the cap flexibility to do so going forward.

 

[FoxysExpensiveNYDigs]

Fantastic deal. If he stays a 2nd pair D its market value and if he develops into a 1st pair it's a steal. Good job Groton.

 

[Thirty One]

Fantastic deal. If he stays a 2nd pair D its market value and if he develops into a 1st pair it's a steal. Good job Groton.

I just don't see the steal potential. People are talking about avoiding a $7 million contract in two years. Even adjusting generously for cap inflation, 16 defensemen had a cap hit of $6 million or more last year. Do we see that kind of potential in Skjei?

 

[Matz03]

Great term but I initially thought it was again a tad high, $500k could make the difference at some point but seeing there are no-trade clauses attached makes this worth it. It's not a slam dunk as in Mac's case but I don't think Skjei is a finished product either. The front office must still be seeing some upside and polish to his game as I do.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Well, at least she tries

 

[FoxysExpensiveNYDigs]

I just don't see the steal potential. People are talking about avoiding a $7 million contract in two years. Even adjusting generously for cap inflation, 16 defensemen had a cap hit of $6 million or more last year. Do we see that kind of potential in Skjei?

Wait until you see him in a non-AV season.

 

[nyr2k2]

I just don't see the steal potential. People are talking about avoiding a $7 million contract in two years. Even adjusting generously for cap inflation, 16 defensemen had a cap hit of $6 million or more last year. Do we see that kind of potential in Skjei?

If he becomes one of those tweener 2/3 guys who could ably play on your first unit but really should be on your second, I could totally see him getting $6M+ on the open market. If he just tops out as a solid 3/4, I think he could get around $5.5M-$5.75M on the market. I have nothing to base this on other that my own casual observation of how salaries appear to be exploding.

 

[Thirty One]

Wait until you see him in a non-AV season.

Have you seen that episode of South Park where Randy was excited about the Obama election and how things were going to be vastly different and then ended up disappointed when everything was largely the same? That's what I envision a lot of for this upcoming season.

If he becomes one of those tweener 2/3 guys who could ably play on your first unit but really should be on your second, I could totally see him getting $6M+ on the open market. If he just tops out as a solid 3/4, I think he could get around $5.5M-$5.75M on the market. I have nothing to base this on other that my own casual observation of how salaries appear to be exploding.

Yeah, I realistically see them saving themselves from a $5.75M or so contract a couple years down the road if they played it conservatively and went two years today. Which I think is pretty weak savings considering you're taking on a lot more risk and it's 3 RFA years. I'd be very happy to pay him $5.75M in exchange for getting two more years to make sure we really understand who Brady Skjei is as an NHL defenseman.