In reality Demko’s two final RFA years are probably worth about 4mil each, if you sign him for another three years at the 6mil range, that equates to a 5 year x 5.33 contract. That would be fair market value for Demko, but there are a few things to consider:
1) You could probably talk him down a bit as he really only has one good year, and he knows that there’s risk that if he takes a 1 year deal and doesn’t play as well it could drastically compromise his contract. He may be happy to take a bit less to guarantee the overall money.
2) I do think a slight hometown discount should be in order. All these young guys should be doing it to keep the core together. Demko knows Pettersson and Hughes both have to be signed this off-season as well, he’s probably mentally prepared to take a bit less than otherwise would be expected.
Based on all of this, I could see a 5 year deal in the 4.9mil range. That’s my guess.
How do we afford that? We ditch Holtby, it’s the only way. Either trade him this deadline, or in the off-season, or roll the dice he’s taken my Seattle. If not, we can always buy him out which frees up all but 500k of his cap hit next year. The year after we’d be hit with 1.9mil in dead cap space, but we have a lot more overall room that year, so it’d be worth it.
