It's kinda funny how we thought Keller's contract was unfair at 1st and now it looks like one of the best contracts in the NHL. Expecting this contract to eventually look like a bargain too.
Funny about those posting on the main board saying it's a bad contract.
You are mistaken about being worth it for this upcoming season. He is still on his ELC and it doesn't kick in until next year.
He misspoke. It is for 8 years starting next year. He should have said for the next 9 years!
Yeah, now that you mention it being one more year on the rookie contract, it's potentially that he'll be underpaid before he even starts this new contract.
Think Chayka initiated the trend of signing guys early to forgo a bridge contract. You pull them up when they are ready and burn years so you can sign them before they completely break out. I believe he did it with Dvorak, Chyrchun, and Keller. I'd say Dvorak was fine, but had injury issues, Chychrun's was also fine and he also had injury issues, and Keller has been an ideal situation.
To me, injuries are the only real concern, but he doesn't seem to have any history of them to be a concern.
These contracts are structured in such a way that the player is so young, you can just trade them if it isn't work out. Some one will take the risk and since it's so long, he'll still be in his prime during it so they won't worry about the end years as much. You also have front-loaded it in salary itself, making moving the player easier, sans the no trade/movement clause, whichever one he has.