I never said no one should be making more than Jack. I've simply stated that I don't think Bratt is worth more than $8M. Without Jack in the lineup it has been exposing Bratt in a negative way: he's been looking like a complimentary player.
It's a small sample size but very early on the season I pointed out how Bratt has these periods of ghosting, and his kind of inconsistency is what gets teams bounced. To make that worse now, he's not stepping up when we need our depth to.
Yes, he will get assists here and there, but I've hardly seem him driving the play. He has the puck on his stick a second before it's off and to another. He's terrible at freeing up the puck along the boards. But, he's got the speed and finesse to hold onto it longer in the open ice to free up others: a Jack-lite so to speak. Except, he doesn't do that much!
Meier and Bratt are nearly the same career PPG, and are both breaking out at the same time. Bratt has the advantage of being 2 years younger, but Meier being a power forward offers a lot more to his game. Meier is worth more on the open market.
I have no problem paying Meier $9M, because when he's not directly scoring - he'll at least be doing other things (the same reason I don't really get upset at Nico). Bratt on the hand is, right now, is about as one-dimensional as it gets.
Though I did see a little hope after he got demoted from Nico's line. I think he was maybe playing with Haula and Mercer/Shara? Either way, he was put on a line that was a lot more physical and that really opened him up. But as of now Meier should and will get paid more. If not here than another team.
