This guy is our next Alfredsson, with Karlsson level skill and flair.
“For me, money doesn’t mean much,” Stützle says. “It’s the way I was raised. It was never about money. It was about trying to be a good person.”
And then he adds: “My only goal is to win a Stanley Cup ring.”
“People will say, ‘Why did he sign that early?’ But in the end, I think the fans are happy that I’m committed long term,” he says. “And I wanted to show commitment to everybody — the younger guys, too, like Sandy (Jake Sanderson). This group is special. I could have easily signed for three or four years and said, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ But I’m just so confident that we’re going to be a good team.”
If Stützle had waited, he certainly would have had enough leverage to warrant a much richer contract. But that was never his motivation.
“Personally, I think if someone is making $10 or $11 million it makes it hard to win with the salary cap,” he says. “But with everybody making under $9 million in our young core, I think we have a really good chance to win. And the only goal I really have is to win a Stanley Cup with this group of guys.”
He knew he could have joined the league’s salaried elite and made north of $10 million with this new contract.
“For me, it wasn’t important if I made $9 million or $10 million. Making $8.35 million is still a lot of money,” Stützle says. “I just think it’s a really fair deal for both sides, you know? And that’s what I wanted.”
Not surprisingly, his mother offered some important perspective as he contemplated the deal.
“I said to him, ‘Tim, what more do you want than having a good team and lots of fans?'” she remembers telling him. “You’re going to have more money than you can ever spend in your whole life. Why do you need more?”
