Oh yeah, I guess there was that whole thing with Uncle Todd. Didn't think of that connection.
On Jones though, if the cap is going to 97m, Jones will be paid fairly. Hell, even now I bet he looks a lot better on the Avs than Chi and no one cares what he makes. GM's pay for this type of guy, even if his +/- is bad on a shit team. You retain 2m, and you have a bidding war. You can try and argue that he is overpaid and "x amount is worth all the picks Yada yada" well ok, then go find a cheap top 4 RHD who can munch minutes and put up points. I won't wait up as every team is looking for that guy to some degree.
The league is kind of in a weird spot in that not many top end D have signed recently, so some of the best guys are still steals midway through their term as they were signed with a much lower cap or out of their ELC. The max contract for fwds has increased by 1.5m in the last couple years. The last big name D to sign was Dahlin(?), a year ago, and he didn't push the max at 11. What I'm getting at, is in a couple years when Makar/Hughes are busting through that ceiling and making idk, 15+? as both are signidicantly better than Dahlin; well your gonna have a lot more mid guys getting Jones money. So I disagree that the deal looks worse in a couple years, I think the opposite ends up true.
And this assumes Colorado and Mikko can't come to terms on a deal, because Jones+Teuvo++ is a lot better than nothing next year if Mikko follows the money. Which I wouldn't be able to match if he is looking for 13+. Not for a guy that needs Mackinnon for his line to not get caved.