Spoken like a guy that knows he has no argument
No, I realized trying to rationalize with the irrational is futile.
Probably the closest comp was Danault, who signed the same summer. Danault slightly better (I think it's arguable) defensively, but Nuge a much more versatile attacker. Danault was a career 53 point average guy and Nuge (at that point) a 63 point average guy...
Danault got $5.5M. I think you could probably tack on another $1M for Nuge. It was widely rumored the number would be $7M (maybe that was the initial ask).
I'd argue he's quite easily a $1M discount, and you aren't that far off, but you think it's insignificant... can you name a deeper discount? Usually the "team discounts" for UFAs are in the 100's of K's not millions.
Crosby and Malkin took a few million less a year than they could have so they could be competitive.
Kane & Toews took 5yr deals in 2010-11 for 6.3m/yr which is just absurd for a massive cut - The max was 11.88 that year.
Alfredsson and that 1yr of 1m for the team.
Selanne and Kariya and their contracts with Colorado.
Tavares and his contract with the Isles, was one of the biggest bargains for them.
McDavid for example was offered 750k more than what he's getting now, his discount to the team was 750k less per year (which would have made his cap hit 13.25m)
Joe Thornton always took a discount, basically each of his contracts was him taking a lot less than he could have and this was during his prime years.
Bergeron took pay cuts to bring in players, I recall a story about him taking less so the Bruins could bring in Chara. For one of the best Captain's in the game and the best 2-way player of this era, yeah he took massive pay cuts.
Oh here's a very good one - Brayden Point took a lot less and a 3yr deal to keep the Bolts competitive, he was a 90pt player making 6.75m/yr for 3yrs. For a player that in that contract put up 262pts in 267 games.
Oh and on that topic, Kucherov took an insanely big pay cut.
This is just Draisaitl's new contract - McDavid, Skinner, Bouchard all will need new ones and Bouchard is going to see a massive jump in his salary, he's likely not taking anything less than what Nurse makes that's for certain, so he's likely in the 10+ range and that's if he doesn't have an insane year again which pushes that up even more. Skinner, if he builds on last season, will likely see a decent increase as well and I guess you can hope for another 750k massively generous pay cut by McDavid.
Why doesn't Edmonton just get minimum wage guys to throw up Hyman numbers? I mean, it must be easy to do it next to mcjesus right?
Nah mate, obviously the Cap is going to up to the right amount each time just so the Oilers can stay competitive with more cap space. Duh.
Pretty f***ing close.
Close enough that them being a cap strapped team every year hasn't made a lick of difference.
If you think that path is going to be the same...they were taken to a Game 7 by a team with a rookie goalie in net and missing one of their top scorers for Game 7.