Anderson is Anderson. He doesn't have to become any of the players that you named. He's already an established NHL player with his own identity. Some of you are talking like if he was an unproven prospect playing his first NHL games..
Prior to last year playing injured, he had seasons of
- 17 goals in 78 games, 147 hits
- 19 goals in 63 games, 109 hits
- 27 goals in 82 games, 214 hits
He's already shown what he can do and what kind of player he is. Whether he continues in that upward trend trajectory or can maintain that level of production for the next 7 years is the question mark.
It is a risky and lengthy contract, but it's also not totally unjustified. If we absolutely have to find him a comparable, the closest one is Tom Wilson by far. There aren't too many other players in the league with that combination of size, speed, physicality and ability to score.
Tom Wilson signed his $31M for 6 years contract after three seasons of 7, 7 and 14 goals respectively, along with a good playoffs run. He never hit 20 goals before signing that contract. Since then, he's had two consecutive 20+ goals seasons. I don't think anyone in Washington is complaining about that contract right now.
A lot of the so called "power forwards" players examples with the "on the decline after age 28" type of arguments that I see mentioned around here are players known to be average to bad skaters. The worst example I keep seeing is David Clarkson.
It doesn't apply to Anderson, known for his speed. He'll be 32 when the last year of his contract kicks in. In terms of his skating abilities, he reminds me of Erik Cole, a power forward who by the way had a career year playing in Montreal around age 32.
