Who do you take - McDavid at 12.5M$ for 7 years, or Elias Pettersson at 3M$ for 7 years?

[bobholly39]

Through a magic wave of a wand - both McDavid and EP become full fledged UFA's today going into next season. Both reach out to your team - and for whatever reason you're only allowed to sign one of them, not both.

1. McDavid will sign with your team for 7 years at 12.5M$ AAV if you're willing to offer that

2. Pettersson will sign with your team for 7 years at 3M$ AAV if you're willing to offer that

Which player do you pick, and why?

If your team doesn't have the cap space to fit McDavid today - you have the option to make room.

example: If you're Tampa - find a way to trade Stamkos (yes, despite his NMC), even if it means paying a team to take his contract. If you're Toronto, find a way to move Tavares or Marner, even if it means adding a sweetener to take Tavares's contract (and yes, despite his NMC). etc

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[Ivo]

If I was starting a team, I would probably take McDavid. But I was looking at this from the perspective of the Bruins current team structure. Adding McDavid at 12,5 would require big sacrifices with the rest of the roster, which already has quite a few holes. Pettersson at 3 is easy to make room for and fills a huge hole left by the departure of Krejci. I would probably take him and try to make a few more runs with the current core. But taking McDavid and rebuilding around him sure is very tempting.

 

[RedLeader]

3m 7 gives your team a long contending window where you have a lot of flexibility to create a cup winner.

We already know what it's like to have McDavid at 12 million dollars, it's getting knocked out in the first round or struggle to make the playoffs. (ofc teams other than Edmonton could have better success with McDavid..)

 

[Bruce Granville]

Sign Pettersson and McDavid is happy to join a few years later.*


*Disclaimer: not in Vancouver, unfortunately

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

Through a magic wave of a wand - both McDavid and EP become full fledged UFA's today going into next season. Both reach out to your team - and for whatever reason you're only allowed to sign one of them, not both.

1. McDavid will sign with your team for 7 years at 12.5M$ AAV if you're willing to offer that

2. Pettersson will sign with your team for 7 years at 3M$ AAV if you're willing to offer that

Which player do you pick, and why?

If your team doesn't have the cap space to fit McDavid today - you have the option to make room.

example: If you're Tampa - find a way to trade Stamkos (yes, despite his NMC), even if it means paying a team to take his contract. If you're Toronto, find a way to move Tavares or Marner, even if it means adding a sweetener to take Tavares's contract (and yes, despite his NMC). etc

Where's the option for Pettersson at minimum salaryx8 years?

I can add McDavid on the same team when his contract is done.

 

[makbeer]

Leafs take Petterson at $3m which makes trading Marner a no-brainer.

So we gain a bunch of assets from moving Marner and 8m in cap space.

 

[FlappyGiraffe]

Picking EP is the smart choice here but I couldn't pass up having a generational player in their prime playing for my hometown team. Connor would probably score 50 a season playing on a line with McDavid.

 

[pb1300]

3m 7 gives your team a long contending window where you have a lot of flexibility to create a cup winner.

We already know what it's like to have McDavid at 12 million dollars, it's getting knocked out in the first round or struggle to make the playoffs. (ofc teams other than Edmonton could have better success with McDavid..)

That’s only true because the team around him has been shit. You can’t say that the outcome would be the same if he was on a different team, with a different coaching staff and management.

Im taking McDavid and a competent GM.

 

[Crow]

At most I’d pay McDavid 15 mil a year.
At most I’d pay Petterson 10 mil a year.

I’ll take the 7 mil a year discount very easily and add a top winger or defenseman to my theoretical team.

 

[Trade]

If you wanna win regular season scoring awards, the answer is quite simple!

 

[lawrence]

Give me mcdavid.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

I think it depends on the situation. A rebuilding team or a team starting from scratch should certainly be Mcdavid. However I’m an Avs fan and it just isn’t doable to fit Mcdavid in. Plus they have Mackinnon. So having EP as their 2C for 3M makes much more sense.

 

[abo9]

1) From the perspective of building a hockey team under tight cap constraints: Pettersson
You can add Pettersson at that price to pretty much any team and it makes them better (ie they don't have to sacrifice much). Lots of wiggle room to add talented UFA or rentals.

2) From the perspective of a hockey business: McDavid
I mean, I don't think it's particularly close. McDavid will sell much more tickets and merchandise than Pettersson. Adding him to a team might mean tough sacrifices, but I think the money he would generate would outweight any drop in standings or whatever - if any.

3) If starting from scratch ala Seattle or Vegas, and the rest of the ED is the same: McDavid
And this is not particularly close. Just build the team around the contract restriction of McDavid, and you got yourself a contender. It was possible to build a decent Seattle team fitting JVR or even Price contracts, so McD's at 12.5M would be more than manageable.

 

[Frank Drebin]

The answer is quite easy. Would be a lot closer if EP was making 6-7 per.

The gap between the two players (which is quite large) is not worth 9.5m cap hit per year, and it's not like EP is phil Danault

Think about what kind of line you could build with McDavid, 2m 12.5m 5.5m that's 20m on the first line.

With ep you could surround him with 2 7m wingers and still have room for a 7m dman.

 

[EdJovanovski]

McDavid AINEC

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Simple, I'd take Pettersson at that price. It would be by far the best contract in the NHL, and you'd still have over $9M left to spend on a #1D to go with it.

I don't think McDavid is more valuable than Pettersson + Makar for example.

 

[Fatass]

McDavid AINEC

Yup. McDavid is carrying a weak team. He’s amazing. Easy choice here.

 

[bobholly39]

Simple, I'd take Pettersson at that price. It would be by far the best contract in the NHL, and you'd still have over $9M left to spend on a #1D to go with it.

I don't think McDavid is more valuable than Pettersson + Makar for example.

To the bolded - I'd tend to agree.
You seem to be a Caps fan - how do you plan on acquiring Makar? What do you think the trade cost to get him would be?

 

[TGWL]

The answer is McDavid. Who is the other player you're getting for 7 million that makes the difference, or are you planning to use that money on depth signings? If I'm starting a team and didn't sign 3 other players for 10 million, the answer is McDavid. If you can't fit McDavid, then I guess you're screwed.

 

[Three On Zero]

Pettersson AINEC, unfortunately we live in a hockey world with a hard cap, you take the cheaper player and use the money to acquire other players.

Neither have shown that they can contend when it actually matters in the post season. You take the cheaper option and work on building a true contender

 

[ManofSteel55]

The only way I don't take McDavid here is if I can use the cap savings as part of the contract I use to sign McDavid.

 

[Volica]

People don't realize that if Edmonton was just like 25% more competent than they are, even with McDavid making 12.5 million they'd be a top 5 contender every season.
It's a good thing they're a horribly run franchise.

 

[GreeningOil]

At most I’d pay McDavid 15 mil a year.
At most I’d pay Petterson 10 mil a year.

I’ll take the 7 mil a year discount very easily and add a top winger or defenseman to my theoretical team.

Petterson is a 7 million dollar player to ke

 

[CraigsList]

I thought of it this way: is McDavid 4x the player Pettersson is? I would be inclined to say no.

Voted Pettersson.

Another factor in this: Pettersson and Draisaitl combined still make less than McDavid, hence why I’d go with the cheaper option and use that cap space on other top end player(s).

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

To the bolded - I'd tend to agree.
You seem to be a Caps fan - how do you plan on acquiring Makar? What do you think the trade cost to get him would be?

Makar was just an example and I wasn't necessarily considering this from the Caps POV, just in general. We have no assets that would allow us to land Makar lol.