Isles sign Boychuk - 7 years, $42 million

[GhostofPotvin29]

The Isles have Tavares at a great rate for the next 3 years. Boychuk was always going to get 6 ish on the market. It's a great fit, the cap ceiling should easily absorb some stink on the backend should Johnny become useless, which I doubt. Next year they have 17 players signed at 55 cap dollars ( from what I gather ) and have some talent coming down the pike. They're in good shape.

Yeah but most players decline pretty heavily/swiftly once they hit their early to mid 30s.  Robidas was considered very good around the same age that Boychuk is now and when Boychuk's deal expires he'll be a year older than Robidas is now.  And I think it overestimates the cap over the next 7 years and it's ability to wipe out/minimize poor deals.

 

[pmrules]

In terms of cap hit, he is now the 11th highest paid defenseman going into next year, by my calc's. 

No way he is that good.  Not at age 31.  Not for 7 years.

This has to be one of those occassions where the GM is not worried about years 4 through 7.

 

[Tigger]

The Isles have Tavares at a great rate for the next 3 years. Boychuk was always going to get 6 ish on the market. It's a great fit, the cap ceiling should easily absorb some stink on the backend should Johnny become useless, which I doubt. Next year they have 17 players signed at 55 cap dollars ( from what I gather ) and have some talent coming down the pike. They're in good shape.

Yeah but most players decline pretty heavily/swiftly once they hit their early to mid 30s.  Robidas was considered very good around the same age that Boychuk is now and when Boychuk's deal expires he'll be a year older than Robidas is now.  And I think it overestimates the cap over the next 7 years and it's ability to wipe out/minimize poor deals.

I think it's obvious the Isles are pushing to be in contender status within the next 3 years, that window fits pretty well. Looking at the market, Boychuk might have done even better per year, hard to say. Sure there's some risk on the back end of the deal but then someone was going to take that risk, the Isles obviously like what they see and so does Johnny. What would you say the cap is likely to go up by at the end of that deal? I'd say a significant percentage, barring an economic catastrophe.

Regardless, the deal is about now, not then.