I know it's only one year but given our cap situation, I think the Tatar contract was a mistake....how big of one is to be determined but $1.8 seems absurd to me.
It's 2% of the cap for someone who filled a top-6 role on this team 2 years ago. That's essentially in-line with what he was paid last year. It only seems absurd because you're not used to cap hits going up after the last few years.
That is a value contract if he plays in the middle six all year, and comparable with what many 4th liners got this offseason. Compare this to the cap hits MacDermid and Bastian have and the expected impact of those players vs. Tatar.
If I am Mercer's agent I'm not looking for him to prove anything...I want fair market value... nothing more or nothing less.
I am certainly not entertaining any discussion of "prove it"...not after, the team went from 291 goals for to 264 and Nico saw a 13 point drop, Jack saw a 25 point drop...and Dougie ect..
Nope, I shut down that conversation of "prove it" real fast
Mercer is coming off his ELC and has no Arb rights. His only leverage is the threat of an offer sheet (which GMs don't do) the threat of holding out (which players don't do), or giving up UFA years. If he's not doing any of those 3, he's not getting paid what you perceive to be "fair market value" because it is by definition not a fair market.
RFA negotiations are much closer to a legal proceeding than an open negotiation (UFA). I've participated in quite a few negotiations guided by legal proceedings and while both sides may use "arguments" to convey the numbers, both know those are just words thinly veiling an agreement of a number that both sides already worked out with math before exchanging any numbers.