Stammer is 34 and doesn’t turn 35 until mid year next season.
He definitely has slowed down in spite of having good numbers…..
Does he want to play until 40? Will he be able to play at a high level until 40? Is he motivated enough to stick it to Tampa every time we play them the next few years to help offset the way we can’t seem to beat them when we play them?
Do we want at least 3 decent years (hopefully) of Stammer with a slightly manipulated contract with an extra year or two to adjust the AAV down to our benefit? Or do we want to try to peel another center out of a different team?
If we stick a 5-6 year deal in front of him with the dollars laid out in a way that gets him his money in the first couple years, but leaves things open to give the team flexibility at the end to either LTIR or dump it to another team without much cost, or even just to buy it out at the end cheaply, then I say go for it….
If he truly was looking at 5 million AAV equivalent on the extended deal from Tampa, if we give him the equivalent of 7-8m in the first few years with a well structured overall deal, then we might beat the others and overcome this apparent hate everyone is posting about how no one wants to come play here, etc etc….
