which is why it's still one of the better contracts in the league
having Walman at a bargain for 3 years still doesn't compete with having guys like Hughes,Thompson, or Stutzle at a similar bargain for 7-8 though(with higher numbers in actual and expected contract values since they're elite 1Cs not 2Ds)
and there's so many other great deals around the league, here's just a few quick examples of some other longer term deals: Ryan Pulock plays 25 minutes a night for the Islanders and is locked up at 6.15 for the next 7 years, Hampus Lindholm is signed for 7 years at 6,5, Joel-Eriksson-Ek is Minnesota's 1C at this point and is currently locked up for 6 years at 5.25, Jesper Bratt has 20 points in 12 games so far this year and he's locked up at 7.8 for 8 years ,Kotkaniemi is a name to watch he's locked up for 7 years at 4.8 and is at 12 points in 12 games so far this year at 23, RNH just had 100 points last year and is locked up for 6 years at 5.125, Ryan Graves plays 21 minutes a night in Pittsburgh and is locked up for 4.5 for 6 years
how about some other deals a little shorter than 6-8 years? Joshua Morrissey is locked up for 5 years at 6.25, Rasmus Andersson is Calgary's 1D and is locked up for 3 years at 4.55, how about Quinn Hughes and his Norris level play this year locked up at 7.85 for 4 years? Clayton Keller at 7.15 for 5 years? how about Alex Tuch and his 3 years at 4.75? Jakob Chychrun and his 2 years at 4.6? John Marino and Brandon Carlo are both pretty similar level guys to Walman and make an extra less than a million AAV but also have an extra year on their deals compared to him so those are pretty much washes with the Walman deal as well
and this is just scratching the surface, you could nitpick some of these sure but there's also a lot more I could have named that an argument could be made for
honestly looking at it more maybe my initial gut feeling of it being somewhere in the 10-20 range was even a bit too high