I'm not concerned about his contract. He is a proven commodity. He has been our best player for the last eight years. And what people fail to realize is that his new cap hit will impact the team the same way his $6.8 million cap hit will.
It has nothing to do with how much money you spend on your goaltender, and everything to do with how you allocate your funds. If you're spending $8.5 million on a goaltender, and he is performing well for you, than give him a pat on the back, because he is doing his job.
If you spend $7+ million on a forward (Drury, Gomez) or $6.5 million on a defense man (Redden), than you are allocating funds to players who cannot live up to the contract.
Same with Nash and Richards. The problem isn't that Lundqvist is making his money. The issue is that we have numerous other players over the last several years making big money and not performing.
This wouldn't even be an issue if we had our major contracts tied up in Zetterberg, Kane, Sedin, Datsyuk, Getzlaf, Perry, etc, caliber players.
The difference is we have used those same funds to acquire Drury, Gomez, Redden, Richards and Nash. Gaborik was our only UFA that worked out.
We need to build from within and sign players to solid contracts (similar to Kane/Toews). Unfortunately, we don't have anyone in the pipe line close to their ability (and no, Stepan is NOT close to that caliber, before anyone decides to jump on the Stepan is a "#1 center" train).