Confirmed with Link: Henry Thrun re-signed to 2 year deal 1M AAV

[tahoesharksfan]

Good for him for accepting this opportunity. His future is in his own hands....

 

[Cas]

Benning ain’t gonna be back after his contract is up.

Benning's on his retirement contract. He's not going to be back anywhere.

 

[weastern bias]

Benning's on his retirement contract. He's not going to be back anywhere.

He'll be a 32 year old RHD who plays with some physicality and can move the puck a little bit, someone will give him over a million dollars even though he doesn't deserve it, his archetype is just in really high demand

 

[gaucholoco3]

He'll be a 32 year old RHD who plays with some physicality and can move the puck a little bit, someone will give him over a million dollars even though he doesn't deserve it, his archetype is just in really high demand

Benning will absolutely be worth $1 million per year unless he can’t physically come back from his injury.

 

[weastern bias]

Benning will absolutely be worth $1 million per year unless he can’t physically come back from his injury.

The market dictates that he will be worth it, but his quality of play doesn't back it up

He's a league minimum contract #7D quality player who will be paid like a legit bottom pair anchor because of his handedness, size and skating, but his actual impact on ice has been between neutral and catastrophic every year of his career

He only played 14 games on one of the worst teams of all time this year, so I'll throw out those stats even though they're the worst of the bunch, but in the previous 7 seasons he's had an xG% above 50 3 times and a SCF% above 50 3 times while only having a PDO below 1.000 once

Matthew Benning - Summary - Natural Stat Trick

He's a replacement level player on his best day, and on his worst day he's not NHL caliber, but BiG mAn ShOoT rIgHt, so he'll get paid

 

[Cas]

I'm rather skeptical that a poor quality, slow defenseman on the wrong side of 30 coming back from a season-ending hip injury will be able to bounce back effectively and be expected to have a career lasting longer than two additional years.

Sure, it's possible, but I'd be about 75% confident Benning has to settle for a PTO after 2026.

 

[weastern bias]

I'm rather skeptical that a poor quality, slow defenseman on the wrong side of 30 coming back from a season-ending hip injury will be able to bounce back effectively and be expected to have a career lasting longer than two additional years.

Sure, it's possible, but I'd be about 75% confident Benning has to settle for a PTO after 2026.

The problem is that I'm pretty sure teams think he's good, I could see a low level bidding war that bumps him to like $1.2M for a year after his contract expires

Now, if the hip issue basically ends his career that's out the window, but if he performs like he did in 2023 for the next two seasons a few GMs will definitely see him as a valuable addition, I think they're wrong, but they'll talk themselves into it

 

[Hodge]

The market dictates that he will be worth it, but his quality of play doesn't back it up

He's a league minimum contract #7D quality player who will be paid like a legit bottom pair anchor because of his handedness, size and skating, but his actual impact on ice has been between neutral and catastrophic every year of his career

He only played 14 games on one of the worst teams of all time this year, so I'll throw out those stats even though they're the worst of the bunch, but in the previous 7 seasons he's had an xG% above 50 3 times and a SCF% above 50 3 times while only having a PDO below 1.000 once

Matthew Benning - Summary - Natural Stat Trick

He's a replacement level player on his best day, and on his worst day he's not NHL caliber, but BiG mAn ShOoT rIgHt, so he'll get paid

And yet, using the stats on that page, he has been on the ice for 257 GF 272 GA at 5v5 for his career. That's including the games he played this year and last on terrible Sharks teams before which he was basically a break even player. I'll take that on any team's bottom pair for $1.25 million that I can bury in the minors if his play ever slips below that level.

 

[weastern bias]

And yet, using the stats on that page, he has been on the ice for 257 GF 272 GA at 5v5 for his career. That's including the games he played this year and last on terrible Sharks teams before which he was basically a break even player. I'll take that on any team's bottom pair for $1.25 million that I can bury in the minors if his play ever slips below that level.

He's a break even player while consistently getting above average shooting%+save% luck

At his best he does not effect the outcome of games in either a positive or negative direction, and there is definitely value in a low/no event bottom pair defenseman, it just doesn't make sense to go out of your way to aquire a player like him, there are half a dozen players of his caliber available every offseaon, just not usually ones who play the right side, which is why he'll definitely find a team

I'm not arguing that he won't be signed, I'm saying he almost definitely will be signed somewhere, I just don't think he brings anything of real value to the table, he's replaceable when playing at his absolute best

 

[gaucholoco3]

He's a replacement level player on his best day, and on his worst day he's not NHL caliber, but BiG mAn ShOoT rIgHt, so he'll get paid

Replacement level players are absolutely worth $1 million against the cap especially with the cap going up.

Also if you take a look at how many teams are looking for RHD it is obvious that the barrier to entry in the NHL is much lower for RHD than LHD. He will get at least $1 million per year because he is big and RHD, unless he is physically broken still.

 

[weastern bias]

Replacement level players are absolutely worth $1 million against the cap especially with the cap going up.

Also if you take a look at how many teams are looking for RHD it is obvious that the barrier to entry in the NHL is much lower for RHD than LHD. He will get at least $1 million per year because he is big and RHD, unless he is physically broken still.

I agree, he will get that money, but in my opinion replacement players should be making league minimum

The cap increasing just means that star player contracts will inflate accordingly, every time the cap goes up people argue that it means that bad contracts aren't as big of a deal because there's more room, but once the next crop of free agents come up they all end up eating a bigger slice of the pie and it nullifies the increases to the cap that everyone was banking on

The real value to be had in cap increases will be for teams that locked up young star players to long term deals in an environment with a lower ceiling, Jack Hughes only making $8M on the cap for 4 more years is an insane steal and gives the Devils so much more room to operate, we want to try to do something similar with Celebrini so we have him signed to a value contract as he enters his prime and we are trying to compete

But, while a depth player making an extra $200K over what he should isn't a killer by any means, the cap increasing doesn't make it a good contract, it just makes it less of a bad contract

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Benning was fine when he was signed considering we were still bottoming out. I have no problems keeping Benning around while the blue line gets rebuilt. I just think they should be far enough along that re-signing him in 2026 is pointless. If they do and he's an extra that they're able to pass through waivers, I'm fine with investing like that. I just don't think he's higher than an 8 on a competitive team and 2026 is the last year of Celebrini's ELC. They need to maximize competitiveness that season especially if Celebrini and Smith are legitimate franchise guys.