That's not true.
Eichel signed a 10 million a year x8 contract with a career high of 56 and 57 points(At the time he signed) then scored 64 points the next year.
Either way, with the inflation of the cap, 7 Million last year is about equal to 5 million 5 years ago.
There’s a hell of a lot of context to consider there when looking at Eichel, but very good point. I will start saying “Kane is the only forward to ever carry a salary cap hit of $7M while never scoring 60 points” in the future.
Buddy, that wasn't the argument. Cherry picking stats and not reading full arguments or context seems to be your MO here, eh?
From this thread, i've learned that people think a single Eichel and a single ROR are better linemates than Thornton + Pavelski + Burns/Karlsson. And here i thought we overvalue our players on this board.
There are hundreds of cases of good players earning more points when they play with elite talent. Why is that so hard to understand?
There are plenty of cases but it’s a lot less common than you seem to think it is and there are also plenty of cases where players dominate in contract years and then fall off a cliff otherwise. We’ve got precedent to think that Kane is one of those guys and based on this one pre-season game we saw, it looks like that could be the trend we’re going to see this season. Obviously, it’s just one game and it’s pre-season nonetheless and so it guarantees nothing but this game did give us real reasons to worry.
Good to know hertl isn't a 1st liner.
The big difference here is that Hertl has proven himself as a fantastic complementary 1st line player. True 1st line superstars, Thornton and Pavelski, played at their absolute best with Tomas Hertl, and in that time frame, Hertl’s 5V5 production was at a first line rate.
What does that even mean? The point is, you don't set a number like 7 million without taking into account the salary cap. Your "7 million" argument is awful. Of course Kane may be the first player to get 7 million without scoring 60 points. You know why? Because this season is the first season with the 79.5 million salary cap. 7 million is 8.8% of the total.
Jordan Staal without getting 60 points got 9.3% of the cap.
Derek Stepan as an RFA 9.1%.
Ryan Callahan 8.4%.
Brandon Saad as an RFA 8.4%.
And these are players I just found after looking through capfriendly for a minute. There probably are/were others.
The point is that you don’t want to be the first GM to sign these guys to these types of contracts. Yes, inflation will eventually drive players to make far more than they ever did before. Marleau making like $4M right out of the lockout was probably a bit of an overpayment then but it would be an incredible bargain right now.
However, what I am trying to say, is that you wait for the market to set legitimate precedence for Evander Kane level players to make $7M+ before you pay those Evander Kane level players that money. You wait for the Jim Bennings of the world to sign those contracts, normalize things, and go from there.
In the case of the guys you bring up, you definitely have a fair point. 8.8% of the cap is not incredibly uncommon for a forward who has never scored 60 points, although it is still
very rich. However, Staal and Stephan are both centers who are or were elite defensively and were strong #2 guys, and were much better players than Kane. Saad is very strong defensively and is a better player than Kane, or at least was when he signed his contract. I’ve already stated that if you must set a precedent with a contract like this, you do it with a versatile player who brings a lot outside of scoring; those guys do. Ryan Callahan, yeah, sure; he sucks, but his contract is also currently one of the worst in the NHL and may have been what ultimately prevented Tampa from acquiring Erik Karlsson or John Tavares.
Just cause other GMs do dumb shit and fail most of the time does not mean that our GM is absolved from all blame for doing the same.
I didn't bring up his physicality but there is literally no way you can prove that does or doesn't affect wins. especially the BS claim that his I’m penalties lead to goals against. It's purely subjective at this point if his contract is "justified" as we haven't seen enough of him playing with this team to know. So far the early indicators are that he improves the team. As far as setting precedent... The Sharks historically have struggled with bringing in top level UFAs. They also typically have a below average farm system so they have to take what they can get to a certain degree. It depends on who is available and who they can afford in a trade. You then admit that two other significant qualities (puck possession and playmaking) are superior to replacement level but make an unfounded claim that it doesn't justify his contract. So basically you have no actual facts to back up any of your options on him, you just don't like him.
His contract, based on the production in his career, is NOT justified. Even looking at it as a percentage of the cap hit, Kane’s contract is simply not justified for what he brings. Go ahead and look at $7M players, or, look at 8.8% of the cap when they signed their contract players. You will find only A) terrible contracts or B) players far superior to Kane.
Contracts like those given to Burns, Vlasic, and Couture have received heavy criticism because the justification behind them is obviously their past performance; many of us are understandably skeptical that they will maintain this performance into their late 30s. However, at least those guys did earn their contracts at some point. In the case of Kane, he was paid based on potential performance. He was paid based on the same wishful thinking present on this board that he will suddenly become a superstar now that he’s on a “good team”.
I had him as my avatar and was excited when we traded for him. I was cheering him on and I still am, I’m just keeping it real here. I don’t hate Kane. I would much rather have Kane over a replacement level player. I don’t have a problem with his off-ice antics since he’s been a Shark. I just think the contract is stupid, I hate how DeBoer plays him, and I can already tell that his inconsistent play and his injuries will infuriate me for the majority of the time he spends here.
