While I think there is slightly something here. $6m was the highest paid blueliner on the roster last season and the year prior and was top 30ish in the league.
It’s wild to me $6m was seen as blasphemy to Markstrom though for the same reason you suggested Myers is measure too much versus his salary.
The problem with not factoring in salary for players is this is a capped league. What their caphit is matters significantly. It also neglects that how much he’s paid cuts into how You can pay others. Myers’ $6m cost them Tanev+.
Myers is at his best as a #5.
I'm certainly not arguing that Myers was overpaid but to add some thoughts to the point you were responding to.
Contractually a 29-33 timeline is more attractive than 31-34 and 31-36 to players that had struggled with injuries
The Covid free agents of 2020 definitely took some massive haircuts in relation to UFAs of seasons past as well as the stagnant cap which had a huge impact on forward looking contracts overall. Teams like the Leafs were devastated by the lack of upward movement that was expected.
Lastly there is a UFA tax that teams almost always have to pay to outbid or at least compete with offers that come to the players agents in negotiations. While teams are getting much better at not getting reckless it still comes with a cost to add players that can play big minutes and important roles when you cannot fill them from within. Tanev and Marky in a normal year would have gotten more money as would have many others. We already saw this summer a fairly big swing back to free agents getting paid big.
Your point about overpaying and how it effects the roster and ability to sign or retain others is spot on and i mostly agree about him ideally being a 5 given some of his consistency issues but fact is he has never ever been less than a 4 at any point in his career and having a Salo type situation where you have a career 4 playing as a 5 is rare especially given todays RFAs getting bigger pieces of the pie sooner than in the past. In terms of salary thinking he should get paid as a 5 is outrageous given his leverage and past performance/role. I would suggest if he was making 3.75 - 4.25 nobody would bat an eye about his cost.
Lets just hope he can maintain the way he's playing this season mostly because TM with OEL has been a good 2nd pair defense and the way he's skating and negating some of his past performances is boding well for the 2yrs remaining after this one. With upward moving cap it may not be a huge problem but absolutely it's a hindrance.
