Zadorov spent virtually the entire last season below Soucy on the depth chart so I don't know how that's his floor.
Well Soucy spent half the season injured so I'm not sure you can really say that. At the end of the day their average ice time in the regular season was close to identical. To be clear, I'm not saying Zadorov's floor is better than Soucy in every aspect. I would give the edge defensively to Soucy in that case. But Zadorov does skate better, is more physically intimidating with his hits, and is better at chipping in offensively.
The comparison was made because many of us here (me included) thinks Soucy is good for his cap hit. Zadorov has a solid track record of being a good 3rd pairing defenseman in the league to the point that it's reasonable to expect him to continue being one at the very least. He also does have a history of strong playoff perfomances. So in a rising cap environment, I think his floor value would be a bit more than what we're paying Soucy.
Not every overpayment is the same. Good examples are Duchene and Tavares. At $8M AAV nobody wanted Duchene. But he was bought out coming off a 22 goal 56 point season. Tavares coming off a 29 goal 65 point season is untradeable at 11M AAV.
But let's not get lost in the weeds here. In terms of justifying their respective contracts, Zadorov just needs to make up the gap between say $3.5M to $5M AAV as a defensemen with his combination of size and tools. Lindholm is at $7.75M AAV coming off a season no where near Miller's (who is at $8M) but more importantly, Lindholm will be 36 for the majority of his last contractual year while Zadorov will 34. I say this as a big fan of Lindholm. But Lindholm is coming off 22 goal 64 point and 15 goal 44 point seasons. In contrast, Miller when he signed his extension was coming off a 32 goal 99 point season with his previous two seasons at a 70+ points over 82 games pace. But a 2nd line C producing at a 20+ goal 60+ point pace with Lindholm's defensive, special teams, and faceoff abilities can justify a contract worth ~$6M AAV +/-. In the right environment and deployment can Lindholm be a ~$6M player? I think so, at least for the next few years.
Petey currently has the 5th highest cap hit in the league. He needs to be one of the league's best players to justify his contract. Considering how bad Petey can be, I don't know how you can think that Petey
"has a much better chance of living up to his contract than Lindholm and Zadorov" Petey is making $11.6M AAV. Like Horvat is making $8.5M AAV and he put up 33 goals and 68 points last year. Do you think Horvat is overpaid?
