- Jun 13, 2010
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I think I said an 8x8 a couple weeks ago. Glad to see the DRW get him locked up for 8 years. I am not a DRW fan but I love watching this kid. Excited to see how he develops.
Confirmed Signing with Link: [DET] F Lucas Raymond re-signs with the Red Wings (8 years, $8.075M AAV)
- Thread starter MMC
- Start date
You know the league has gone to shit when Mason Raymond gets a $64M contract!
Golden_Jet
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- Sep 21, 2005
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Golden_Jet
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Should have put that in your original post, unless you think posters tune into Leah Hextall.
Crow
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- May 19, 2014
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He is nothing like Byfield and it remains to be seen who will be better. Weird comment.He's like Byfield, but better. Hope this helps
Silky Johnson
I wish you all the bad things in life.
Yup. I like Raymond. So far he is the third best player and third best contract of his draft class.
That being said, I'd probably take Byfield over him due to position, size and potencial.
Laf might end up being the better winger..
Still a good player and good contract.
Nobody tunes into Leah Hextall on purpose. She is forced on us.
She called a Wings game once when she kept calling Lucas Raymond, "Mason Raymond" like 2 or 3 times during the same broadcast. it's been a running joke ever since. She's terrible.
Golden_Jet
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When you realize the cap is gonna be $100M+ in year four of this deal...
Not even just a Red Wings thing. Anybody locking up their stars to max deals at a decent rate right now is gonna reap the benefits.
Yes I am aware.
It's not a "steal of a contract".
It's just how the RFA system works in the NHL.
Guys who aren't even arbitration eligible with 4 more years of RFA control are going to be signed to bargain deals when you compare them to UFA guys who have a bunch of leverage and are able to have bidding wars.
But this isn't any particular bargain compared to Stutzle's deal, Jarvis deal, Fabers deal, Sanderson's deal, Byfields deal, Lundell's deal, or Guhle's deal, if you look at other guys in the exact same situation from that 2020 draft class.
biturbo19
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Like i said, i think it's certainly "fair value" already...with the potential to get even better. I'd even say that dollar value is like to age really well. And it's a fair point that Detroit needs "star power" or top-end offensive play drivers...wherever they can get them.
It's just...as a matter of team construction, it can be risky to invest heavy in the wings, unless they're absolute superstars.
Sort of the hand Yzerman has been dealt though. Raymond is a darn good player, and they've got a bunch of really promising Centers coming along who project as more, solid all around, "good, not great" in terms of becoming that offensive dynamo that really drives the bus (and they'll be on cheap deals for a while). So it has the potential to work out. It's just not a conventional model for success, or all that typical.
Though teams are also paying less creative play-driving Wingers just as much elsewhere. So it might even be a non-issue soon enough.
... Hence "Anybody locking up their stars to max deals at a decent rate right now is gonna reap the benefits."
Detroit isn't really invested heavy on the wing, though.
If there's an up-and-coming team that's at risk of being over-invested in the wing, it's Montreal.
first time RFA long term deals have always been bargains I wouldn't say this is anything new.
Mitch Marner's deal was just absolutely horrible negotiating. Imo the worst contract negotiation in recent memory by a GM
Still to this day no RFA winger has surpassed 9.5 mill, let alone come close to 11 mill. And they didn't get full term.
Mikko Rantanen's deal aged pretty damn well, even after Dubas getting bent over by Marner's agent gave him more leverage to get more.
biturbo19
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2/3 of their best players/top paid cap investments are Wingers though.
That was always sort of going to be the case with Raymond. But there's a huge amount riding on the development of some of these young Centers who don't project as "stars".Because yeah...i'd agree, Montreal is an example of what happens when you get overly invested in the Wingers...even when they're good ones, it's hard to see a perennial contender emerging if they don't rebalance that toward the Center ice position somehow.
It's not impossible to compete that way, but it makes things a lot tougher and a lot less reliable. I think Vegas pre-Eichel showed it's possible, but had a ton of unique advantages and cycled through a heck of a lot of players to get there, and didn't really take that extra last step until they rebalanced toward the Center ice investment. Boston are certainly trying to prove that it's possible as well, though again...they were stronger when anchored down the middle. Heck even Utah/Yotes have some phenomenal wingers, but without that strength down the middle...where's it going?
Detroit are potentially safe in that they do have draft investment in Centers. How many of them actually end up there long-term, remains to be seen. But if a couple of them pan out...they could be in fine shape until they have to pay the "Center Premium" on cap value on those guys as well.
It's not that this Raymond deal isn't good value. It's just...unless he's a Kucherov/Kane/et al level talent, i'm wary of huge investment in wingers. Though even then, guys like Boeser are probably going to start getting $8M deals soon. Heck, apparently Guentzel is a a $9M player (different circumstances as a UFA, but still...). So maybe it really isn't even as big an investment as it looks at first glance. If the cap keeps trending the way some teams seem to think it will.
