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.
You are sorta all over the map here…. We were talking about RNH’s 3rd contract (ie his first UFA contract) and whether it a) represents a discount and b) is the discount significant.
I argued: a) yes and b) 750 to 1m is a significant discount.
You argued a) yes but b) not significantly.
You’ve then followed up with examples that fall in these categories:
1). Discounts that were no bigger than RNH:
* McD left 750K on the table… 750 on 12.5 vs 750+ on 5.1… RNH a deeper discount IMO
*
2) Discounts that were for very short, 1-2 year retirement contracts (often the players 4th or even 5th/6th contract. These are apples and oranges: Alfredsson, Selanne, Kariya, were all signed in their mid/late 30’s… that’s very different than an 8 year deal for prime aged players.
3) Discounts on 2nd (RFA) contracts which also can’t be compared, since the player his much less leverage anyway.
* Kane and Toews took 10.6% during RFA (and only 5 years so zero UFA years included to drive up the cap) but 14.7% during UFA when I’d argue that was market for players at their level.
* Bergeron didn’t take a discount for Chara… he took 10.8% of the cap on his RFA deal. That’s a lot for him at the time… he’d only just established himself. (Nuge took 8.7% at the equivalent stage of his career)
4) A few that we can agree were more significant discounts:
*. I’m going to give you Malkin and Crosby,… their third contracts were discounts @ 13% of the cap… but keep in mind their 2nd contracts were not… both signed for 15.3% during RFA years and that’s (still) unheard of. We are all agreeing that Drai’s UFA contract isn’t much of a discount, but it’s 15.9%… 0.6% more that Crosby/Malkins RFA contract. One could argue they’d made their money already (whereas Drai was at 11.3% during his RFA years).
* Thornton took a discount on his third contract, 12.7%… but his second contract was a whopping 17% !!! His later contracts are only discounts in retrospect, most would have expected him to decline faster than he did in his 30’s
