I get that he had an amazing playoffs the last 2 years but it seems crazy the league is paying guys 6 million a year when they havent even broken 50 points yet.
Lockout incoming
It's cap inflation. As the cap goes higher, the percentages players get stay relatively similar.
In 2016 there was a 71.4M cap. Given the cap will be at 83 million when this extension kicks in, this is similar to a player being signed to a contract that is a tad above 5M in 2016.
Not to mention, his regular season points per game averages out to about 59 points per 82 games.
Here's some perspective on why your cries about a lockout are hyperbole. Ryan Nugent-Hopkin's post ELC contract would be 7.75M x 7 years if equalized to an 83 million dollar cap. That's with 3 UFA years being bought up. It was signed after he had scored around 70 points in 100 games. There's an array of similar contracts which that formula can be done for to illustrate that players have been getting similar contracts for most of the last decade. People just fail to account for cap inflation and lose their minds.
This contract seems like a bargain to me. They have locked down a top 6 player who has been beastly in the last two playoffs to a very reasonable cap hit and term that doesn't contain any signing bonuses and only has modest trade protection.
