How convenient! I wonder if other players on this team merit the same consideration.
Of course.
Who cares what the cap means if you're not spending to it? It's a completely pointless measure.
I judge players by their progress against their respective developmental stage.
It means that I expect different things from Tkachuk, Batherson, Norris than I do from Zaitsev, Brown and Ennis.
As others have said, a long contract to a young player is a down payment on future value. A long contract to a player in his prime is a tax to be paid against his future decline.
Well, when you sign a big money extension in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league you don't get the courtesy of "yeah but here's what we might expect down the road". Potential is great but at the end of this contract, we're going to lump all his stats together without the additional context of each individual season. That's how the NHL works and the only reason we're even having this discussion is because the guy is very popular and seems to be above criticism with this fanbase.
Great, we can reconvene in seven years and add up all the stats you want.
I'm not sure why you're losing your shit about a sample of 42 games into that contract where he's not even doing that badly considering we've had the evil eye on our franchise seemingly from Day 1 of the season.
When I criticize him, it's based on my expectations of his play at his current age and developmental stage. Not some arbitrary slice of a pie that we aren't even consuming.
Do I think Tkachuk is overpaid? Sure, to the tune of about $700K to a million bucks. In the end, Dorion caved to keep his Captain. Thankfully, Batherson's contract balances it out.
These arguments might stand on their own if Murray's contract existed in a vacuum but you don't evaluate his performance and that year's salary relative to his peers' salaries do you? Anyway, hardly surprising for two of the biggest Murray critics on this sub.
Murray played like shit last year for all kinds of reasons - some because of the team, and the early composition, and some because of him. He's playing much better this year since being recalled.
As far as goalies are concerned, whoever is playing the best should play - clearly that's Murray of late.
I'm not understanding your Murray comparison.
Either he's on a shitty contract and clearly not living up to it (e.g. apply your Tkachuk logic to his performance over the all of the stats being lumped together without additional context) or you think there does have to be additional context levied for Matt which makes me wonder why you won't extend Brady the same courtesy.
Ironically, Murray has played almost exactly the same number of games on his contract as Tkachuk has on his, only he's 27 years old with two Cup rings under his belt.
The fact of the matter is that his contract was backloaded just as Tkachuk's was, and it makes sense as he becomes more important to the team as the team becomes more competitive, and his stats should reflect that as well.