Confirmed with Link: Jonas Siegenthaler extended (5 years, $3.4 AAV)

[Guttersniped]

Gudbranson got the “I’m friends with Gaudreau bonus”

The funny part is I don’t think that’s the reason they signed him at all.

Columbus is very young and wanted a tough guy to stop people from taking liberties etc.



Jarmo announced his signing at 3pm and said this:

“(Gudbranson) was our No. 1 target and we’re very happy to get him,” Kekalainen said. “He brings all the elements that we felt we were missing. He’s a great character guy.

“Our scouts have done this all year; we’ve identified the targets that we felt we needed. Our problem is not scoring goals. We can talk about the center ice position or whatever we want, but we scored a lot of goals. We’ve just got to keep the puck out of our net.

“This guy can defend. He’s a penalty killer. He’s got size and strength and toughness and grit and leadership. We’re very excited to have him here.”

Columbus didn’t enter the Gaudreau chat until after this (note the time of the announcement, not the presser, everyone knew what it meant):



So Philly was out.



People mention that Cam Atkinson helped sell Gaudreau on Columbus, which means that CA is yet another very close friend of JG’s on the Flyers (along with Hayes, DeAngelo and Farabee, there might be others lol).

It sucks that he jerked us around waiting for the Flyers to call (and was probably just hoping for a NYI vs NJD bidding war to help his negotiating power) but it’s never not going to be funny to me he was holding out for a call from Fletcher that never came until all hope was lost.

(I get that you’re just making a joke but I just found that Philly presser tweet & I wanted to throw into a post.)

Why the Blue Jackets viewed Erik Gudbranson as their 'No. 1 target' in free agency

Gudbranson's signing, for four years and $16 million, raised eyebrows around the NHL.

theathletic.com

 

[Bleedred]

He's one player I'll accept being wrong on.

I was a bit skeptical coming into last year that he'd be here more than 2-3 more years (including last year) and he'd be off the roster by UFA.

I figured at best he was a prime Ben Lovejoy (Lovejoy wasn't at all a bad defenseman) or another Mirco Mueller at worst. His play in 21-22 was considerably better than a prime Lovejoy. If you look at Lovejoy's TOI in his mid to late 20's, he wasn't playing as much as Siegenthaler did last year.

 

[OmNomNom]

wow so no one hates this, thats a rarity

 

[Nubmer6]

I figured at best he was a prime Ben Lovejoy (Lovejoy wasn't at all a bad defenseman) or another Mirco Mueller at worst.

No-one can be a prime Lovejoy.

 

[Emperoreddy]

No-one can be a prime Lovejoy.

Not even prime Lovejoy

 

[My3Sons]

No-one can be a prime Lovejoy.

Prime Lovejoy, accept no substitute.

 

[MauDevils]

wow so no one hates this, thats a rarity

The only one that hates this deal is Jonas' agent.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Guaranteed money is definitely great, but looking at what a plug like RealGud got in UFA, you'd think Siegs' agent would just want him to take a short-term deal and get to UFA.

He’s coming off a career year after a long road to getting his opportunity. People seem to ignore how difficult it is to get to this level and keep your game at this level. The amount of work that goes in and then you finally have a great year and get an opportunity for a nice long-term contract where you’re gonna get paid for the next 6 years regardless of if you get injured or have a tough season or two.

Same reason I wouldn’t assume that Bratt is looking for a shorter deal. Unless you’re some high-end talent who’s been pretty much better than everyone at every single level there’s a lot of reason and incentive to just take the biggest and longest contract you can get coming out of a career year.

 

[My3Sons]

He’s coming off a career year after a long road to getting his opportunity. People seem to ignore how difficult it is to get to this level and keep your game at this level. The amount of work that goes in and then you finally have a great year and get an opportunity for a nice long-term contract where you’re gonna get paid for the next 6 years regardless of if you get injured or have a tough season or two.

Same reason I wouldn’t assume that Bratt is looking for a shorter deal. Unless you’re some high-end talent who’s been pretty much better than everyone at every single level there’s a lot of reason and incentive to just take the biggest and longest contract you can get coming out of a career year.

Bratt has the track record though. I am skeptical that he wants a long term team friendly deal. My guess is that he expects a nutty payday in two years when he hits UFA and the alleged massive cap increase actually takes place. I'm sure he'd sign on those terms but what team wants to commit to that now? I am hopeful he will sign for four years rather than just live with the arbitration numbers for two years. As others have noted, his best earning route is to sign for four and then for seven or eight. He likely only gets one big payday whether in two years or four and if he can extend after four his UFA deal will run until he's about 35 instead of only 33 when he's maybe or maybe not still playing at a high level as a smaller guy dependent upon his skating.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Siegs was acquired using the 3rd from the Taylor Hall trade, IIRC

So Mercer + Siegs (and Bahl) from that trade is looking like a huge win

 

[OmNomNom]

Siegs was acquired using the 3rd from the Taylor Hall trade, IIRC

So Mercer + Siegs (and Bahl) from that trade is looking like a huge win

correct -- all this for adam larsson

 

[glenwo2]

Bratt liked the instagram post fwiw

I bet he just likes it that Siegs makes less than expected which means more money for him. *grumble* *grumble*

Yeah what everyone has said and also thank you Jonas for wanting to be part of the team and accepting this team friendly deal! Should be a fan favorite if he already wasn't. \o/

And Bratt is going to be the bad guy here.

Maybe @DevilDoggo was onto something here with his POS remark.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Bratt has the track record though. I am skeptical that he wants a long term team friendly deal. My guess is that he expects a nutty payday in two years when he hits UFA and the alleged massive cap increase actually takes place. I'm sure he'd sign on those terms but what team wants to commit to that now? I am hopeful he will sign for four years rather than just live with the arbitration numbers for two years. As others have noted, his best earning route is to sign for four and then for seven or eight. He likely only gets one big payday whether in two years or four and if he can extend after four his UFA deal will run until he's about 35 instead of only 33 when he's maybe or maybe not still playing at a high level as a smaller guy dependent upon his skating.

He doesn’t have the track record though. Nothing close to what he did this season. It took him 5 years to get to the level he was at this season and there’s no guarentee whatsoever he can keep this level up.
That’s not his best earning route at all if he can’t stay at a ppg forward.

He probably knows better than anyone just how hard it is to play at the level he did this season and there should certainly be incentive to take his big payday now rather than take a shorter deal and hope he can maintain this level and doesn’t get injured for the next 2-4 years.

Also I never said Bratt would take a long-term team friendly deal. I’d imagine the hold up is most likely focused on the team friendliness of the deal. Bratt wants to be paid like a 70+ point forward. Fitz is hesitant because he’s only played at that level for one season. That’d be my guess.

 

[britdevil]

Fantastic contract. Good work Fitz and Jonas.

 

[ninetyeight]

I bet he just likes it that Siegs makes less than expected which means more money for him. *grumble* *grumble*


And Bratt is going to be the bad guy here.

Maybe @DevilDoggo was onto something here with his POS remark.

Or maybe this excellent contract proves that Fitz is lowballing everyone

 

[Homedresser]

Guaranteed money is definitely great, but looking at what a plug like RealGud got in UFA, you'd think Siegs' agent would just want him to take a short-term deal and get to UFA.

coming of a 2 year 2M deal his agent wasn't passing up 17M guranteed. Good deal for both sides. I wouldn't call it a steal for the Devils. Just a good contract. Guy got a annual 3x raise.

 

[captainscott12]

Thats pretty good......pretty pretty pretty good

Guessing Fitz got the number down a little giving so many years. But again that's a great deal.

if he plays well he will get one more huge contract.. thats all these guys ask for.. the chance to cash in and i think you should give it to them

 

[My3Sons]

He doesn’t have the track record though. Nothing close to what he did this season. It took him 5 years to get to the level he was at this season and there’s no guarentee whatsoever he can keep this level up.
That’s not his best earning route at all if he can’t stay at a ppg forward.

He probably knows better than anyone just how hard it is to play at the level he did this season and there should certainly be incentive to take his big payday now rather than take a shorter deal and hope he can maintain this level and doesn’t get injured for the next 2-4 years.

Also I never said Bratt would take a long-term team friendly deal. I’d imagine the hold up is most likely focused on the team friendliness of the deal. Bratt wants to be paid like a 70+ point forward. Fitz is hesitant because he’s only played at that level for one season. That’d be my guess.

I think maybe we are talking about two different things? I was suggesting he has a track record of looking to bet on himself rather than sign a longer deal (as always just my opinion and not pounding the table about it). Also I din't mean to imply that you were advocating he'd take a team friendly deal. That's just a general concept floating around the general discussion. I am just hopeful they can compromise. If Bratt is saying I won't take anything other than a two year deal short of a gross overpayment and if Fitz is saying it's seven or eight years or bust I'd be disappointed.

 

[tailfins]

He's one player I'll accept being wrong on.

I was a bit skeptical coming into last year that he'd be here more than 2-3 more years (including last year) and he'd be off the roster by UFA.

I figured at best he was a prime Ben Lovejoy (Lovejoy wasn't at all a bad defenseman) or another Mirco Mueller at worst. His play in 21-22 was considerably better than a prime Lovejoy. If you look at Lovejoy's TOI in his mid to late 20's, he wasn't playing as much as Siegenthaler did last year.

I’m in the same boat with you. I thought Fitz got snookered by the Caps. Super happy to be wrong.

 

[Guadana]

Great deal. Just watch what other mobile players with good defensive game have got. Fitz making everything I want. Next time will ask him to trade Slafkovsky for a couple of second round picks. Who knows.

 

[EnglishDevil]

That's an unbelievable contract, having two excellent defensive specialists signed long term for extremely reasonable AAVs in Siegenthaler & Marino is a fantastic position to be in.

Along with Hamilton, Hughes & Nemec we are on the cusp of having a truly elite defensive group. We also have a ton of defensive prospects so the chances of somebody emerging to fill those #6/7 defender spots on the cheap are pretty good. Worst case you can pick those guys up in UFA pretty easily anyway, like we did with Smith this year.

The writing is on the wall for Graves & Severson beyond this year though, honestly with the premium teams are willing to pay for RHD I really hope we trade Damon for an actual return instead of letting him walk for free in UFA. I guess Graves could stick around if he were willing to sign a reasonable deal, we don't really have another lock at LHD beyond Siegenthaler & Hughes for next year so maybe he still has a role going forward.

 

[SempreMilan]

Outstanding deal. Seigenthaler is a rock who rarely makes a bad play. Love his compete level and determination.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

The only way this could be better is if they cloned him.

 

[JK3]

Wooo! Not very SiegenBaller, thought he’d get a little more. Great for the team though!

 

[glenwo2]

So....how about that Siegenthaler fellow?

I hear he got a nice contract...