More like 5-6 weeks. Plenty of key young players have been signed to post-ELC deals very late in the off-season, with no negative repercussions for themselves or their team. Jets signed RFA Connor to a seven-year deal on Sept. 28, 2019; Canucks signed RFA Pettersson to a three-year bridge deal on Oct. 1, 2021. Was either deal, even with the benefit of hindsight, an over-payment because the bar had been set higher by contracts signed earlier in those off-seasons? No. Was locking up Connor early more advantageous to the Jetts than the Canucks signing Pettersson to a bridge deal? No. The Canucks have Pettersson under contract for 14 years, until 33yo, and it took only one long-term deal to get there. Jets will have to sign Connor to a second longish-term deal, or very likely have to trade him to prevent losing him for nothing as a 29yo FA. Fans get sucked into thinking it's always better to lock up good young players ASAP, but they forget it's going to take at least three contracts to keep them as long as they would like. The younger a player is when locked up initially, the more it's going to cost the team on that third contract if they are still playing at a high level.
Negotiation parameters are set early in the process, they don't change to accommodate another team's overpayment or because a player unwisely agreed to a low-ball offer. The market is set by multiple previous examples, not outliers. Fans freak out, worrying about things they don't fully understand. Players meanwhile just wait it out with golf, family, training, whatever. They leave all of it to their agents, at least until it's finally time to crap or get off the pot. They have a good idea what they'll get, either long-term or bridge, and know they'll get their money one way or another. They don't care how long it takes so long as business doesn't veer into personal territory. In the meantime they're not hurting -- in their early 20s with enough socked away to cover all the greens fees and beach resort holidays they want. The only real benefit to a deal signed early in the process, especially if it's long-term, is it's just one less thing to have to answer stupid questions about for X number of years.