You don't get it. There's very little leverage if you want to lock up your young stars long term. They already got Tanev to sign a 1 year deal with a promise to pay him if he has another good season which he did. Canucks fans consider Tanev a first pairing defenseman well before he signed his current contract. As for Horvat, teams don't tend to use the ball and chain with their best players. Did the Leafs use their leverage with Nylander? They did and that sure worked out well. The reports then was that Nylander was asking as high as $8M AAV. He signed for just under $7M AAV with a front-loaded contract and huge signing bonus coming to him next summer. You ask Leafs fans last summer and very few wanted to pay him over $6M AAV.
Fan expectations rarely match reality when it comes to long term contracts. Name some long-term contracts that the respective fan base consider to be an absolute steal that turned out as such (and I dont mean "could be down the road types). That rarely happens because there's always risk vs reward. If you thought Tanev was a first pairing defenseman and Horvat was a core player future captain, what do you think their agents value them as?
Explain to me how there is very little leverage?
Teams don't ball and chain their top players....when did Gaudreau finally sign his contract with Calgary? Why is Nathan Mackinnon only making $800k more than Bo...ditto with Monahan. Both these players had significantly better resumes at the time. In hindsight, the contract is good, but it could've been great. Wennberg was a player most thought was on the high end for Bo's contract at the time, he earns $600k less. Ultimately I'm not to worried about the overpays on your core.....but nearly every contract this regime has signed is inflate, and it leads to problems....see my reply to alternate for reasons.
One of the biggest examples of an overpay is Markstrom. They literally signed him to a 3 year deal after one season as a back up, a full one year before they needed to. It just didn't make sense. It's not egregious, but they absolutely had no reason to triple his salary after 33 games as a back up, with a 3 year extension, starting after the next season....why not wait? Look how much Pittsburgh just signed Casey Desmith for.
I'm not sure if you don't get it anymore, I think I would say that you just don't care. You're content to just let the chips fall and hope it turns out, I'd say I want the best management of the team possible that best allows the team to become a contender and I don't think overpaying every contract makes sense.
And it's not just $500k-$1m in my mind either, some of these deals signed are way more than that.