There's 15 D on this list between 6.5-7.5. How many would you take in place of Chabot?
Listing the top salaries, cap hits, cash, earnings, contracts, and bonuses, for all active NHL players.
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I think this is a flawed way to look at it, because it doesn't account for there being players who make less than Chabot who people would rather have.
For better or worse, Chabot is overpaid. I think it's okay to acknowledge this but also acknowledge that there isn't always a perfect scenario where if Chabot wasn't here, we would have a great 6M per #3 defenseman.
If given the chance to go back in time and instead of doing something important to change history, my only goal was to help the Ottawa Senators, I would not undo the contract. I think it was a good gamble at the time and it was very important to show they could keep young stars as a goodwill gesture to the fanbase after so many stars left. Even if Chabot isn't an 8M player (9.5M real money AAV) in 2025 and beyond, I think that the team got good value out of the contract with all the minutes Chabot ate up during the rebuild and with the goodwill the signing created with a very dejected fanbase.
The cap also stalled due to reasons outside of the control of Senators management, the COVID outbreak. It was reasonable to expect when they signed Chabot that the cap hit would age nicely as the cap ceiling inflated. Eugene Melnyk and Pierre Dorion also did not cause the COVID outbreak (as far as we know), and the league operating at a loss during COVID is a big reason why Chabot is overpaid. Had COVID never happened, we would be at a 100M+ salary cap, and Chabot's cap hit would be fine.