STL Shark
Registered User
- Mar 6, 2013
- 4,546
- 5,825
Think that is too low and not updated from January. My guess is that his deal will look close-ish to the Chatfield deal, but probably a bit more if he hits the open market and the cap increases. My guess is something like 4 years at $4-4.5M. Split the difference between the Chatfield deal and the Matt Roy deal and that is probably the sweet spot to expect for him.I was looking at AFP Analytics latest contract projections. They're usually pretty accurate and they have Kovacevic pegged for a 2x1.5M contract as a UFA. This seems insanely low but maybe I'm overrating Kovacevic. He's 27 and this is his first season as a top 4 defenseman and he doesn't really provide any offense. I would have been happy with the Sharks giving him the Brett Pesce contract (6x5.5M) so it would rock if we can get him for significantly less than that.
If that is the number, we should be aggressive in getting that done in addition to trying to add Ekblad with a high AAV deal. AFP has Ekblad at 7 years $6.8M. We should offer 5 years at $9.5M and get him equal money with 2 years less on the deal so he can go back to market and get another 3-4 year contract at age 34 just before he hits the 35+ contract age where teams start to shy away from term.
Add Schaefer and a Walman-Ekblad, Schaefer-Kovacevic, Muk-Liljegren defense doesn't look like total crap. Hope that Schaefer can move up to play with Ekblad by TDL time and then you basically can slide Dickinson/Cagnoni into Walman's roster spot for 2026-27 as the 3rd pairing LD and PP guy.