Lmao
For fringe guys, there’s no guarantees. Zero. No guarantees you’ll be able to produce the same. No guarantee of health. There isn’t even a guarantee you make the team following year.
The literal smartest thing to do is get that bag if it’s being offered.
Not always. In Vinny's case he was an extremely unique piece in an extremely unique defensive system. With another year of similar results under Knoblauch it would have been much less risky for the Oilers (or other teams) to offer him a 3-4 year deal over the 2 year contract Vancouver ultimately gave him. Plus with the rising cap he would've gotten the same kind of increase anyway even if he'd stayed in the same role.
Now instead of 1-2 years @ $1-$1.5M ($2-3M total) plus let's say $2M x 4 ($8M) for a minimum of $10M in future earnings, he's a healthy scratch with the Canucks already and few teams will be open to taking a risk on him mid-season. He might even end up on waivers if Vancouver can't engineer a trade, so that's 50% of this contract out the window and an even steeper hill to climb next season.
Kostin is in the same boat. Had he stayed in Edmonton and picked up some freebie points from McDrai while remaining a universal fan favorite, the odds he would have signed a longer-term deal this or last summer for similar money as to what SJ gave him a year early would be pretty good. Instead he's a RFA at year's end who likely goes unqualified and either has to go the PTO route or return to Russia.
It's unmitigated greed and guys listening to their agents (who are chasing a commission, duh) over making good decisions for their futures that leads to this kind of thing. I doubt though they will be the last.
