Paying him 2.5 out of the gate was stupid. I said as much when he was signed. Any potential extension was going to cost them more.
And now we're stuck with this. What a farce of a contract.
The 2.5 was pretty dumb (but on the Chiarelli scalemove, it wasnt
dumb dumb) It set this benchmark for his next contract. I fail to see how you get him under 2.5 on his next deal.
The whole situation should be a lesson to people in these threads who justify bad moves by saying "Calm down, its only "X" number of years" or "X player gets even more, so this player could have gotten more elsewhere"
The initial 2.5 mil contract on its own was a meh move. But taken into account with all of Chiarellis moves, it was a signal of an incoming dumb move. Chiarelli obviously loved him and thought he was the next Kipper. So the 4.5 gross overpay was to be expected
This contract is going to be the next Villie Leino situation