I made this post a few months ago but here's the breakdown. Read it, digest it and see what the REAL NUMBERS are (not your hypothetical facts in your mind). I'm all for arguing for the sake of arguing but when you have a baseless argument. Take the L and find another point to argue.
Auston Matthews definitely isn't the point scorer that McDavid is but he puts up near PPG during his ELC. Something not matched by players not named (Malkin, Crosby etc. Top echelon players). Not to mention he is an absolute stud goal scorer. He got paid for his work. He literally shat over the same players that are currently being praised for their play and contracts (value) in MacK, Scheifele, Barkov etc.
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ELC: Current Cap: Contract % of cap when signed
Centers:
Barkov: $5.9 mil/ year :
9.12%
PPG: 0.62
GPG: 0.27
Scheifele: $6.125 mil/ year :
9.55%
PPG: 0.64
GPG: 0.26
Monahan: $6.375 mil/ year :
8.58%
PPG: 0.67
GPG: 0.34
Kuznetsov: $7.8 mil/ year :
10.09%
PPG: 0.70
GPG: 0.2
MacKinnon: $6.3 mil/ year :
9%
PPG: 0.70
GPG: 0.27
Draisaitl $8.5 mil/year :
13.43%
PPG: 0.72
GPG: 0.26
Aho: $8.5 mil/ year :
10.4%
PPG: 0.81
GPG: 0.34
Eichel: $10 mil/ year :
13.13%
PPG: 0.85
GPG: 0.35
Matthews: $11.634 mil/ year :
14.2%
PPG: 0.97
GPG: 0.52
McDavid: $12.5 mil/ year :
15.29%
PPG: 1.22
GPG: 0.42
Wingers:
Huberdeau: $3.25/ year bridge deal:
4.6% bridge
PPG: 0.58
GPG: 0.19
Hoffman: $5.187 mil/ year:
7.1%
PPG: 0.61
GPG: 0.32
Ehlers: $6 mil/ year :
7.9%
PPG: 0.69
GPG: 0.29
Pastrnak: $6.67 mil/ year :
8.8%
PPG: 0.72
GPG: 0.34
Nylander: $6.96 mil/ year:
8.8% (13.44% because he signed late into the season and first year cap hit was $10.2 mil)
PPG: 0.73
GPG: 0.26
Tarasenko: $7.5 mil/ year:
10.5%
PPG: 0.75
GPG: 0.37
Gaudreau: $6.75 mil/ year:
9.3%
PPG: 0.88
GPG: 0.31
Marner: - : -
PPG: 0.93
GPG: 0.28
Panarin: $6 mil/ year bridge deal:
8% Bridge
PPG: 0.93
GPG: 0.38
Using Draisaitl, Eichel and McDavid as comparable for Matthews, I can argue that either both Matthews and McDavid are underpaid (McDavid severely) or both Eichel and Draisaitl were severely overpaid for what they had done in their ELC. As of today, you would be hard pressed to find any one complaining about either Eichel or Draisaitls contracts. Same will apply for Matthews in 2 years.
Matthews has the most absurd GPG out of every player listed both W and C. He's outscored his second best GPG guy in McDavid by 0.1 GPG/ season. That amounts to about 8 more goals per 82 game season. That is absurd.
Mitch is at a cross roads and understandably so. He's at the upper echelon of ELC production for wingers. Both Gaudreau and Panarin seemingly took sweetheart deals with a bridge and a 9.3% cap hit for Johnny hockey. Tarasenko looks like he was overpaid when he signed his deal.
Willy's contract from what I can see was fair. He definitely didn't take a sweetheart deal like Johnny Gaudreau did but he is in no way shape or form overpaid for what he did in his ELC.
Lastly, Sebastian Aho's current contract is well below market value for what he has produced so far. He should be getting paid probably $1 mil more in AAV than what the current offer sheet is. I'm not sure with the inner workings of his deal but if I was his agent I would not have signed the deal that Montreal offered. Aho contract is a bargain for what he's done thus far and if he continues to produce and improve like all of these players have for the most part, Aho is going to end up the biggest steal of a contract next to a guy like Johnny Gaudreau.
EDIT: I would include MacK, Huberdeau, Chef, Barkov as steal of a deal contracts but looking at their not so hot ELC production, these guys ended up being late bloomers more than anything else. Teams were fortunate to sign them while their values were lower post ELC.
EDIT X2: Looking at Aho's agent. He's a finish guy with all finish players and most of them are young guys with Aho being the biggest name. Carolina got lucky.
Rantanen has the same agent as Draisaitl, Schneider, Risto, Tarasenko. I would put a good chunk of money down that he's not going to get ripped off by any stretch. All those players have signed above market value contracts with their respective teams. Laine has the same agent. (
bold prediction, Laine will get close to/ more than what Marner/Rants will make even though anyone who has watched hockey knows that he is no where near the player that Marner/Rants are).
Brayden Point's agent has Price and Lucic so he's going to get a pretty penny as well.
Mitch's agent Darren Ferris looks like Mitch is his main guy. His other top clients are Taylor hall, Zach Bogosian and Andreas Athanasiou. We all remember Athanasiou threatening the wings to go play in europe with his contract hold out. He eventually ended up caving once he realized he had no leverage in his situation. Lol
(If I was a betting man, I would bet that Mitch takes a 2 year $6-7 mil/ year bridge deal and renegs when the cap is higher in two years when the TV deals kick in and he has a couple more PPG and potentially 100+ point seasons under his belt)//////// Ferris is notorious for getting his guys to bridge deals.
Auston and McDavid have the same agencies. The bobby orr group.