Confirmed Signing with Link: [COL] Ian Cole signs with the Avs (3 years, $4.25M)

[Foppberg]

This is one of the reason i think most GM in NHL are incompetent, i think they just have got their job because of connections and have no idea of what they are doing. Horrible trades, horrible draft picks, horrible signings. You wonder what they are thinking half of the time. Signs like this will just come back and haunt you when you want to sign a star player.

Much better save this money for some star player than signing medicore d-men for 4.25, you could have sign a equally good d-men for lesser than 1m, or you could lift up a prospect to fill that role. I Cole is hardly anything special, and is not worth more than around 1m.

Signs like this makes the signing for star player seem cheap. The worse contracts are usually the ones around 4-7m, medicore players that togeheter take up alot of cap space. Maybe a 1 year contract and if you have alot of cap space and have nothing better to spend it on.

For 3 cole you could get 1 EK/Tavares+1-2 1m guys.

 

[SC2GM]

Vegas Knights = GMs are better at improving other teams than their own team (sans Vegas GM). There has to be some kinda secret make a wish GM program going on. You know it's bad when you assume the 4.25 has to be for the duration of the contract, not per year.

I'd like to give a shoutout to the Perron signing at 4 million. Thank you for playing for the love of the game and for the love of St. Louis -- or not having Ian Cole's agent. If I'm Ian Cole's agent, I'm demanding at least 30% of that. To steal all of that money and then only get a standard cut? Dude is prob angry as h right now. Just fuming and cursing.

 

[wej20]

Vegas Knights = GMs are better at improving other teams than their own team (sans Vegas GM). There has to be some kinda secret make a wish GM program going on. You know it's bad when you assume the 4.25 has to be for the duration of the contract, not per year.

I'd like to give a shoutout to the Perron signing at 4 million. Thank you for playing for the love of the game and for the love of St. Louis -- or not having Ian Cole's agent. If I'm Ian Cole's agent, I'm demanding at least 30% of that. To steal all of that money and then only get a standard cut? Dude is prob angry as h right now. Just fuming and cursing.

So you thought he was getting 1.45m a year?

 

[Maylo]

I'd like to give a shoutout to the Perron signing at 4 million. Thank you for playing for the love of the game and for the love of St. Louis -- or not having Ian Cole's agent. If I'm Ian Cole's agent, I'm demanding at least 30% of that. To steal all of that money and then only get a standard cut? Dude is prob angry as h right now. Just fuming and cursing.

I think Avs were willing to pay him, they wanted him whole year. But Kevin Magnuson(Cole agent) is from Kurt Overhardt agency so.. they have a reputation.

 

[SC2GM]

So you thought he was getting 1.45m a year?

Figured it had to be closer to 1 million than 4 million, for sure. People are saying he's a number 5 D man, after all. What is he supposed to get paid? Everyone is going to want to play on the Penguins now. Forget the being gifted a cup part -- they're going to think you were the reason for it. "You want the cup, baby, you gotta pay up for my press box skills."

Brad Hunt is getting paid 600,000 and was lucky to even get a chance to play in the NHL (thank god for expansion). Give me that guy at 4.25 over Ian Cole. In seriousness, he's not bad... I just didn't expect him to be valued like that. Good agent.

 

[CamPopplestone]

Good player for what he is. Overpaid, yeah, but he fills a role and the higher cap hit is probably because it's a 3 year contract instead of 4-5.

He is also a battler. I think you'll like him for what he is Aves fans.

 

[Slyfox]

Awful contract especially considering what CDH got.

 

[Patagonia]

Not happy with the contract being for too much money, but for a short 3 years fills a role for the often injured EJ. Gives the prospects extra time to develop, he'll be gone or traded before they arrive.

 

[Drew311]

Very risky contract. Could barely stay in the line up with Pittsburgh, then looked fantastic with Columbus. You really have no idea what you're getting with Cole, and it could change season to season.

 

[ulvvf]

Vegas Knights = GMs are better at improving other teams than their own team (sans Vegas GM). There has to be some kinda secret make a wish GM program going on. You know it's bad when you assume the 4.25 has to be for the duration of the contract, not per year.

I agree about that, but the fact that McPhee wins the prize as best GM in the league, then you know it is bad. The guy behind the Forsberg trade, the guy behind the Tatar trade (this season), is the best GM in the league? If that is the standards of the best GM in the leauge, then the rest of the teams owners can just go out and hire a random person on the street and save some money.

The GMs seems to live on other having a bad day, and they take turns in that.

 

[Sam Spade]

He's overpaid but I'm guessing the salary cap is of no concern to the Avs. Still, he's overpaid, and if last season was a fluke for JJ he'll he a steal.

You mean like ten of the last twelve seasons right?

Cole is decent enough if over-payed by 500k, he will earn his money in the playoffs where I always think he steps up his game.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Very risky contract. Could barely stay in the line up with Pittsburgh, then looked fantastic with Columbus. You really have no idea what you're getting with Cole, and it could change season to season.

Cole's benching in Pittsburgh had nothing to do with his play and everything to do with a spat with the coach, and I say this as a Pens fan. He never should have been sat. Here's a comparison to Jack Johnson I posted when we signed the latter to his deal (there's a description of what each metric represents when you move your cursor over it, and the "out of 100" is how he ranks by percentile):

Tableau Public

He also put up great Corsi despite getting 55% d-zone starts:

Ian Cole Stats | Hockey-Reference.com

Bottom line is that he's a smart, gritty defensive defenseman who can skate well, score 20-25 points a year at ES, and he's only 29 and signed short-term. The eye test and all the underlying numbers suggest he's worth his money.

 

[Soedy]

For 3 cole you could get 1 EK/Tavares+1-2 1m guys.

My bad I didn't know there were 30 EK clones out there so every team could sign one.

 

[wej20]

Figured it had to be closer to 1 million than 4 million, for sure. People are saying he's a number 5 D man, after all. What is he supposed to get paid? Everyone is going to want to play on the Penguins now. Forget the being gifted a cup part -- they're going to think you were the reason for it. "You want the cup, baby, you gotta pay up for my press box skills."

Brad Hunt is getting paid 600,000 and was lucky to even get a chance to play in the NHL (thank god for expansion). Give me that guy at 4.25 over Ian Cole. In seriousness, he's not bad... I just didn't expect him to be valued like that. Good agent.

Even a decent #7 costs close to a million these days. You usually pay a premium when you sign players in Free Agency (especially dmen) and when you factor in his two cup rings then this deal while an over payment isn't that crazy. I like what Colardo did here, I'm sure they could have gotten the caphit down by going for a 4 year deal but given the style of game Cole plays I think 3 years gives them more flexibility.

 

[tucker3434]

I don’t get people calling it awful or risky. It’s 3 years, not 5, and he’s under 30. He’s overpaid, but mostly in the first year. He only makes $3m in the final year of his deal. If it came down to it, I don’t think it’d be hard to move him to a team with an internal cap.

It’s definitely a below average value signing but isn’t even close to the truly bad contracts that are handed out.

 

[BKarchitect]

Definitely a significant overpayment but he’s a great “fit” for the Avs in terms of adding physicality and leadership to the blueline and considering we’ve handed out multi-year deals in the past to guys like Beauchemin and Brad Stuart to handle similar roles when they were already nearing their mid-30’s, the fact that Cole will still be 29 for most of the upcoming season should mean a little more return in the investment over the length of the deal.

So definitely not gonna sit here and say he didn’t get more than I thought he would but I can see what he does bring being appealing to what the Avs wanted. Part of it also is that despite some of the giggles over the cost among fans here, there is no doubt Cole was a very popular UFA commodity among coaches and GMs in the league (despite his bust up with Sullivan) because he does bring that intangible leadership mentality and definitely a personality to the table along with the on ice warrior stuff. I’m not saying it justifies the cost but look at the type of player GMs are willing to overpay and Cole fits that to a tee.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I don’t get people calling it awful or risky. It’s 3 years, not 5, and he’s under 30. He’s overpaid, but mostly in the first year. He only makes $3m in the final year of his deal. If it came down to it, I don’t think it’d be hard to move him to a team with an internal cap.

It’s definitely a below average value signing but isn’t even close to the truly bad contracts that are handed out.

I think Avs fans will be pleasantly surprised by Cole. He's rock solid.

 

[bleedgreen]

I don’t see this being a regrettable contract. He’s proven himself pretty useful in a bottom pairing and sometimes above role, and those guys are valuable. It’s a huge position of weakness for the Avs, and he’s exactly the kind of vet they need. I think he’ll fit with the core and be a solid complimentary player, the price isn’t outrageous in ufa world.

It’s only three years....

 

[Dr Quincy]

I wouldn't give Cole that contract, but at the end of the day it's not going to be a huge deal. Every team has at least 1 overpaid D. Usually they are defensive stay at home guys who lose another step and become liabilities. I can see that happening to Cole by the 3rd year, but it doesn't look like COL is going to have cap issues so it's not probably not going to harm them.

That said, I can see the guy becoming a board's whipping boy given his salary and a potential downturn in play over the next year or 2.